Something to Fight For
by LairdStewart98
Summary: Kenneth has been alone for nearly a month now, and is trapped in the city of Pittsburgh. But what happens when he meets other survivors? He finds something to fight for.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

I had just woken up when I saw them.

It was morning, I had been stupid and had slept in. A Hunter had found me and tried to kill me. _Tried_.

They were coming off the highway. Whoever was driving must have figured cutting through the city was a better idea than doubling back from where they came.

I almost pitied them.

This was Pittsburgh, or as I like to call it, hell.

Name's Kenneth by the way.

I've been here for about a month now, unable to leave, constantly running and killing. Hunters and Infected alike.

A entire month without parents, siblings, guardians, friends. It was incredibly boring. I'm surprised I haven't gone mad yet. Then again, if I'm talking to you, I guess I probably have.

Anyways, the day is young, and I'm burning daylight. Seeing as the Hunters found my last hidey-hole I'm going to have to move again.

Maybe I'll stumble onto the trucker's corpses later, if the Hunters won't have picked them clean by then.

So yeah, that's my life.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Hi guys! This is a little taste of a new fic I'm writing. Hope you like it.


	2. Chapter 2

**First Impressions**

Well my day's turning out especially crap.

The Hunters are twitchier than usual, their barrels going for shadows and blowing leaves. I first figured it was because I'd killed one of them that morning, but it seems that I wasn't the only people still in the city. The bastards were still picking off the stragglers of that group they got a few days ago. They've taken one of the "tourists" and stuck his upper half on the hood of their humvee. Sick fucks.

"We just need to find those people from the pickup"

That's another thing. Turns out that pickup _was_ wrecked by the Hunters (I looted the wreckage myself), but whoever was inside was stronger that I gave them credit for. They're mowing through these guys.

Not too sure if it's a smart idea for me to follow the corpse trail, but hey, free stuff!

Judging from the way they're heading they're still trying to get out the city. I'm actually quite interested to see if they can pull it off. I haven't actually been in this part of Pittsburgh before, the place was always crawling with the Hunter bastards.

Their trail seems to lead into one of the hotels. It's not actually a bad idea. If the Hunters hadn't already gone through the place with a fine tooth comb. Which they have.

Although it surprises me how much they've overlooked. I've found no food of course, but there's some scrap, crafting materials, rags and duct tape (you can never go wrong with duct tape). I can make plenty with this.

You'd be surprised what you can turn into a small stabby implement. I carried a lot of knives and shivs, mostly because I've never learned to fire a gun. Not that I've ever needed one though. I can usually get by with a shiv and my 220lb bulk. Any fight I can't win with my hands can be ran from or avoided altogether. At least that was my policy.

Anyhow, where was I? Oh yes. My day, and how shite it got.

So I was perusing through the abandoned hotel, shanking the odd Hunter in my way, avoiding the corpses that the pickup people had left behind, when I heard an almighty crash, like really, really loud, as in a everything-with-a-pulse-and-working-ears-within-a-half-mile-radius-heard-it loud.

So naturally I go check it out. Crazy right?

Anyway, the culprit of the noise was an elevator. Fallen straight down to the basement. I kind of pitied the fool that made it fall. He was wither dead or injured clicker-bait (so yeah, pretty much dead).

So I go on my way, still looting, surviving, when I hear a noise. The sound of footsteps. I clung to the wall, trying my best to be silent. When I heard the footsteps running around the corner, I swung a fist. It was round about chest height, unfortunately for my victim, she was shorter than the average man, so my punch caught her in the head.

That's right, _she_. I hit a little girl.

Immediately feeling like a bastard, I tried to help her up, and apologize, I swear I did. But she pulled a switchblade on me, so I had to fling her into a wall. What? It was self-defense!

The girl got back to her feet (I swear she was made of steel) and started swinging her knife at me again, so this time I grabbed her, twisted the blade out of her grip, and tripped her onto the floor.

"Motherfucker" she spat at me.

"Please don't do that again" I warned her. I didn't want to hurt the kid, she obviously wasn't a Hunter, they didn't keep kids around, but she still tried to attack me, and there was no way in hell I would go down easy.

The girl crawled back up onto her feet, switchblade back in her hand, though she did admittedly look a little less confident about using it. I too just stood there, holding a shiv in what I believed to be a threatening pose, one of my most reliable ones actually, I had sharpened it from a toothbrush. Though it was bright pink, so that probably took a couple of points off my manliness card.

"You just gonna stand there?" the girl asked, jerking me back to reality. Bad habit of mine, getting lost in thought. There was a hard edge to the girl's voice, although she seemed a little confused too.

She was young, most definitely, about a head or two shorter than me. She had reddish brown hair tied into a little ponytail, clad in a red top and jeans. Her eyes were a pale green, and she had a little scar through her eyebrow.

"Look," I started "I really don't want to kill you..."

"Kill me?" the kid had repeated as if she couldn't believe the words "You come anywhere near me and I'll fuck you up!"

Had to give her credit, she had guts. But it was just bluster.

"Really?" I said "So what was all that?", gesturing towards the crack in the plastered wall made from her impact.

"You got lucky" she answered.

"And what's to stop me from getting lucky again?" I argued.

There was a moment of awkward silence. Both of us knew who would win in a straight fight, and neither of us really wanted to get hurt.

"So what?" she said "We just gonna stare at each other til someone drops dead?"

"That's not a bad idea" I smirked. I put my shiv back in my pocket "I'm Kenneth"

The kid waited a bit before speaking again. "Ellie"

The silence continued.

"So..." I coughed awkwardly, "Why's a kid like you on her own?"

"I'm not a kid" Ellie argued indignantly.

"Sure you're not" I snarked "What are you, like, twelve?"

"How old are you?" she asked right back at me.

"About sixteen" I answered.

"You're a kid too" Ellie pointed out.

"Hey, being sixteen makes me a legal adult, kid" I argued. It was true. Probably.

"Well I'm fourteen" Ellie stated.

"See, that makes you the kid" I noted. This earned me a quick glare.

"So you didn't answer my question" I continued, "Where are your parents?"

"Where are anybody's parents" she shrugged in reply.

Fair enough. "What about an uncle?" a shake of the head. "Aunt?" same reply. "Some other kind of guardian?"

"Joel!" she blurted out. Her head snapped down the hallway, "Shit!" she muttered, before running off.

"Woah!" She was fast, but I caught up with her "Slow down. Who's Joel?"

"This guy I was with" she explained "He was in the elevator. I need to find him!" She went to run again, but stopped to look at me "Why am I telling you all this?"

"I guess I just look trustworthy" I shrugged. There was more silence before I spoke up again "So, um, hows about I help you look for this Joel?"

"Why do you wanna help?" Ellie asked.

 _Good fucking question_ , said the angry little voice in the back of my head, but my reply was more like "It'd be safer if I helped you"

"Why do you care?"

"You're first person my age I've seen in a long time" I offered as an explanation.

She seemed to ponder this fact for a bit before saying "Fine" and walking off.

So yeah, now I was babysitting. Not something I would have put on my to-do list at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Bullets, Blades and Ellie. Oh My!**

Well I immediately regret this decision.

The kid, sorry, Ellie, is a fucking nightmare.

I'm trying to be stealthy, sneaking past or sneaking up on the Hunters we come across, and here she is stomping around with all the grace and subtlety of a steam locomotive and a parrot with tourettes.

So this means I have to fight, which is harder than it sounds, given that some of them have guns and I don't. On the other hand I found a pipe, and with the godlike power of duct tape I've stuck a pair of scissors on the bitch. Instant melee kill acheived!

Ellie keeps whining at me to grab a gun, or at least give one to her.

"For the last time, no!" I say, "I can't use a gun and there's no way in hell I'm giving one to you. You have a knife, use it!"

This earned me Ellie's middle finger. Really mature kid.

Anyway, we had made it out of the main part of the hotel, when we came across several bodies in the kitchen. That's when it ocurred to me that this Joel and Ellie were the killers from the pickup. I was suddenly very nervous about what would happen if this reunion went south.

In the restaurant, we walked in on a struggle. Two guys, one I recognised as a Hunter, the one currently winning, had his opponent/victim submerged in a puddle, drowning him. I felt for the guy, I did honest, but was it really in my best interests to save him?

Ellie answered that question for me, without so much as a word (she could shut up apparently!) she ran forward, grabbed a handgun that had been abandoned in the skirmish, and blew the bastard's brains out.

"Shit, kid" I muttered, "I should've given you a gun ages ago"

The man had burst from underneath the water, gasping for air. I figured this was the Joel Ellie was talking about.

He was relatively unimpressive. He was old, old for this crapsack world anyway, maybe in his fifties. His dark hair was messy, he possessed a pretty scruffy beard, wearning worn out clothes that I suspected he had been wearing for a few years anyway. It was his eyes, hazel and bloodshot, that showed his true self. There was steel in that gaze, an edge of ruthlessness that made me want to cower, to run and hide, or pull a knife and take my chances in a brawl to the death, a look of pure animal instinct that urged some primal fear within you. I got the impression that this old geezer could still snap me like a twig if push came to shove.

There was a brief moment of silence, before Ellie broke it. "Man... I shot the hell outta that guy, huh?"

"Yeah," Joel coughed, getting to his feet "You sure did"

Ellie sat down on a nearby crate, Joel taking the gun from her hands "I feel sick"

It probably wasn't my smartest idea but I felt I had to make my prescence known "Sheesh. From what the Hunters said I was expecting a one-man-army. You kinda got ypur ass handed to you"

Joel's cold glare found me, my eyes stared back, trying their best to pass off look of fearlessness instead of pant-shitting terror.

"The hell are you?" Joel demanded, a southern twang to his baritone growl.

"Name's Kenneth" I replied "The guy that saved your kids life"

"No you didn't" Ellie argued, her first-kill jitters seemingly gone for now.

"Oh yeah?" I snarked back at her "The only reason you're still alive is that I decided to take pity on a fourteen year old girl and not cut her up like my usual M.O"

Joel turned to face Ellie now "What happened to hanging back like I told you to?"

"Well you're glad I didn't, right?"

"I'm glad I didn't get my head blown off by a goddamn kid"

I'll admit, I'm a proud guy myself. I don't like to admit it when I'm wrong or when I'm in trouble. But that one ungrateful son-of-a-bitch just earned himself an award that I only gave out to the truest ungrateful bastards in recorded human history.

I didn't like him. Did you notice?

Ellie didn't seem like she was going to take it lying down either. "You know what? No. How about "Hey Ellie, I know it wasn't easy, but it was either him or me. Thanks for saving my ass". You got anything like that for me Joel?"

Joel blinked, that was all. "We gotta get going"

"Right behind you" Ellie muttered, staring at her feet. She was about to follow when I put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey" I said with what I hoped was a reassuring smile "You did the right thing" I pat her arm "Nice shot"

We followed Joel up to the higher levels of the building. If Joel had any problem with my presence he never said anything. We stopped when we found ourselves at a dead end in a ballroom of sorts. Ellie stopped to stare at some kind of backdrop.

"Woah, look at that" she breathed

"That's a backdrop" Joel explained "People would stand in front of it and take their pictures"

"Yeah, I know what it is" Ellie snapped back.

I was on the other side of the room, admiring an old piano, but I heard every word.

"Okay then" Joel started "Something on your mind Ellie?"

Ellie took an exasperated breath before replying "I wasn't trying to disobey you back there" she explained "You were gone a long time and I just thought, maybe he's gotten into trouble"

"It don't matter what you thought" Joel argued, still trying to keep quiet "I need you to listen to me"

"I do..." Ellie defended

"Hey guys!" I called, deciding I'd had enough of eavesdropping "I think I've found us a way up!"

I had as well. The piano was heavy, but with enough manpower we could shove it against the wall we climb up and out onto the scaffolding outside.

I gestured Joel to come help me "I'm gonna need a hand, old man" I smirked.

Joel grumbled a pretty imaginative place for me to put my knife, but came to help nonetheless. We shoved, but the instrument was barely moving.

"You even trying?" Joel complained

"Are you?"

Sure enough we managed to climb up eventually. Out on the scaffolding there was a platform with a dead sniper and his loaded rifle conveniently lying beside him.

I ducked down when I saw what was below us: Hunters, and a lot of them. More than I'd ever be able to take on single-handedly. Though with the seemingly terminator Joel with me, I was feeling confident.

"What'd you think?" I asked the older man.

"You feel like helping me clear a path?"

"Please" I smirked "I've been killing these guys a lot longer than you have"

"What about me?" Ellie asked

"You stay here" Joel said.

I was about to argue her usefulness but Ellie beat me to it "This is so stupid, we'd have more of a fucking chance if you'd let me help"

"I am" Joel stated, before gently handing her the rifle. "Now you seem to know your way around a gun. You reckon you can handle that?"

Ellie stared at the rifle as if she was expected it to come alive and bite her. I'll admit I wasn't much better.

"Well..." Ellie pondered "I sorta shot a rifle before. But it was at rats"

"Rats?" Joel repeated, obviously confused.

"With BBs" Ellie elaborated.

Jesus Christ, she had no clue.

"Well" Joel sighed "It's the same basic concept". He leaned towards the girl nudging her hands so that she was holding the gun right. "Now, you're gonna wanna lean right into that stock, 'cause that's gonna kick a hell of a lot more than any BB rifle"

I took the time to sharpen the cleaver that I had managed to nick from the hotel kitchen against one of my shivs, while Joel explained to Ellie how to reload.

"I got this" Ellie assured him when he was done.

"Right" he started to head to the ladder to climb down. He stopped and turned back "And just so you know, back there... It was either him or me" And then he was gone.

It was as awkward a thank you as I was inept with firearms, but Ellie understood "You're welcome"

Maybe there was hope for the old man after all.

"Hey" I said, gently nudging her shoulder, "Don't shoot me down there now, okay?" I was smiling, so she knew I was joking.

"No promises" she smiled back.

Soon I was by Joel's side, and we were off. He took the left-hand side of the street, I took the right. Joel abandoned stealth almost immediately, blowing people away with a deadly combination of a shotgun and a revolver. I went for a quieter option, a blend of broken necks, strangulation and stabby-stabby, but that ended as well when one of them saw me, so I had to kick him out a window. His head cracked off the concrete and he never got back up. From my vantage point, I could see that more Hunters were spilling onto the street.

I swore under my breath "Joel, we got company!" I cried before lobbing a brick down at the nearest Hunter. It cracked him on the eyebrow and he collapsed like a ragdoll. Joel fired a couple rounds, but was forced to take cover. Ellie from the scaffolding however had a clear shot, and the bastards dropped like flies. She was as good as her word.

"I think that's all of them!" I called

"Right" Joel responded. He called up to Ellie "Come on down!

I was looting a body when Ellie clambered down, rifle still in her hands "How'd I do?" she asked us.

"Well, I didn't get shot" I joked

Joel took the rifle from her, handing her a handgun instead. "How about something a little more your size?"

"For emergencies only" I reminded her.

Ellie smiled like it was Christmas. I'm not sure if I'd want a gun for a gift but hey, who was I to judge?

Personally I wanted a kukri, or a katana. Those would be awesome.


	4. Chapter 4

**Pittsburgh: The Grand Tour (We Apologise For the Mess and the Murders)**

Now I've always been nervous around guns, escpecially when they're being held by kids. But Joel, somehow, was even more uneasy.

"Now the safety's on" he stated "Do you know how to switch it off?"

"Yep" was Ellie's reply.

"You just... You gotta respect it, this is not-"

"Joel. I'll be careful"

Joel gave a relieved breath "Okay"

Our journey took us through the buildings again, when I heard a familiar rumble. The humvee.

"Everybody down!" I whispered. We all dropped down as we saw two other surivors outside running down the street, only to be ruthlessly shot down. That's when the humvee pulled into the view.

Now if you don't realise why this thing scares me, then I'm not doing it justice. This humvee was ex-military, reinforced steel, a .50 cal gun on top (to the unfamiliar, that's a _big_ fucking gun), and if that's not enough, there's always a Hunter sitting on the back ready to jump off and open fire, so the thing cannot be blindsided. It was not a thing to be fought, only feared.

We didn't move until the vehicle disappeared around the corner.

We decided to cut through an office block, avoiding a couple of Hunters along the way, although it seemed from their conversation that Joel and Ellie's reputation was forever preceding them.

"Well at least they finally killed that tourist couple. Now all's left is to find that fucking pickup truck duo"

"There better've been an army in that truck. How the fuck did they wipe out the entire crew over there?"

"Think that kid's giving them help?"

Hey, that was me!

"Could be. Kid's never gone after us though, there's a reason why we never caught him"

Their conversation kind of went out of earshot by then.

"I'm not a kid" I muttered under my breath.

"They sounded pretty scared of us" said Ellie. She actually sounded surprised.

"You think?" I sarcastically asked "You and your big friend there are going through these guys like a storm, of course they're scared"

We moved on, coming across a street full of Hunter scouts. We killed them of course. I took one side, Joel took the other. We were being stealthy this time, I guess Joel wanted to prove that he could be discreet too. Didn't last though, Joel had a hunting rifle of sorts and decided to make use of his vantage point. The Hunters scattered, many of them running into the buildings for cover, right into my spikey pipe. Knew that would come in handy.

After looting the dead I came out to find Ellie staring at some old soldier corpses that had been left to rot in the open. Judging from where they lay I figured a firing squad did it.

"Think they had families?" she asks

"Everyone has families" Joel answered, "Best not to think about it"

The road ahead was barricaded so we had to toss Ellie up the fire escape for a ladder. Up and over we went, Joel claiming they could see the bridge, and we landing in the middle of a square. Ellie went off running to some gate.

"I stayed at a place like this," she said pointing, "Back in the Boston QZ"

"Military Preparatory School" Joel read aloud.

"The hell does that mean?" I asked.

"Fancy way of saying orphanage" Ellie explained. "I wonder happened to all the kids here"

I shrugged my shoulders "Dunno. You're the first kid I've seen all this time"

"This place has been out for a good stretch" Joel claimed "They ain't kids no more"

"Meaning they're either Hunters trying to kill us, or they're dead" Ellie stated.

"That's why you try not to think about it" I reminded her "Too depressing"

We didn't make it twenty yards before Ellie stopped again, this time it was a movie poster. Dawn of the Wolf: Part 2. The advertisments were all over the city.

"I saw this," Joel admitted "Right before the outbreak"

"You did?" Ellie exclaimed, I'll admit I was surprised too "Does he totally gut her by the end?"

"Nobody gets gutted" Joel answered "It's a dumb teen movie"

"Why'd you go see it then?" I asked

Joel seemed to visibly age at the question. His shoulders sagged, his eyes dropped ever so slightly. "I don't know" he mumbled. He probably thought no one had noticed, but I was good at reading people. You had to be to survive outside the zones.

Joel had lost someone, someone he knew before the outbreak. I decided not to push the matter further, I knew what loss felt like.

We left the square, passing through an alley, when we heard the humvee pass by again. We ducked into another building, where predictably another bunch of Hunters were hanging out. I was listening on their conversation, and I'll admit I almost burst from cover when I overhead that one of the Hunters had a bacon stash somewhere, but hey, priorities right?

We tried to sneak around them, but the humvee was sitting right there, and like I said, it couldn't be fooled.

We sprinted into the building across the street, trying to move as quickly as we could, the humvee's rounds cutting through the drywall like it was nothing. We ran out the back door, unfortunately this certain alley was wide enough for the humvee to give chase. Fortunately however, there were enough twists and turns to make it difficult to aim that big-ass gun of its. Some Hunters followed on foot, Joel cracked a Hunter over the head with a wooden plank, and I threw one of my knives behind me, specifically my cleaver. I heard someone cry out, so I must have hit something.

We escaped through an office complex, climbing the stairs and out onto a fire escape on the far side. We managed to shimmy our way across the outside of the building into an apartment, where I'm pretty sure I saw Joel pocket a pair of scissors. We had to clamber outside the building again to get to the next room. Joel went first, while I brought up the rear.

Did I mention I hated heights? Or well, not heights specifically, just high places from which I could sustain serious injury like the cold, hard concrete below us- holy crap, they're below us!

Ellie just shushed me. I think I might have said that last bit out loud. Whoops.

"We're okay" Joel assured us "They can't see us"

He vaulted through the window... and we immediately heard the sounds of a scuffle. Ellie jumped through, switchblade in hand. I drew my toothbrush shiv and followed her in.


	5. Chapter 5

**The More the Merrier**

There was a guy that had Joel in a headlock, and he didn't look like he was about to let go anytime soon. He had a fresh wound on his arm, so I'm guessing Ellie got a hit in. The guy stared at her, utterly transfixed. "The fuck?" I heard him exclaim.

I didn't wait any longer. I lunged for his neck, but he turned at the last second and I scraped his shoulder instead. He made the mistake of letting Joel go, and the old man started hitting back. Within seconds this guy was on the floor, vainly trying to protect his face from Joel's fists.

"Kenneth!" Ellie tugged on my sleeve, pointing across the room. My eyes followed her finger, and fell upon the barrel of a gun.

"Joel!" I alerted him. He didn't hear me, or maybe he ignored me, deaf in his bloodlust.

"Joel stop!" Ellie cried. It worked. He stopped to look up at her. We gestured towards the gun wielder.

Admittedly the person behind the gun wasn't very impressive himself. He was a kid too, younger than even Ellie. Dark skin, dark hair, dirty clothes, almost a mini-me of the guy Joel was pounding, a family member maybe. Didn't make the handgun any less dangerous in this enclosed space though.

"Leave him alone" the young boy demanded, his voice shaking ever so slightly.

Joel had the sense to back away "Easy son" he placated "Just take it easy"

The beaten idiot on the floor, surprisingly, raised a hand, and spoke to the kid "It's alright. They're not the bad guys. Lower the gun"

The boy did so, and the older guy slowly got to his feet. "Man. You hit hard" he groaned.

"Yeah, well I _was_ trying to kill you" Joel stated

"Yeah. I thought you were one of them too" the stranger admitted "Then I saw you" he gestured to Ellie.

"Sound logic" I stated. "Hunters don't have kids"

"Exactly. Survival of the fittest and all that"

The kid went to his friend/brother/whatever's side "You're bleeding!" he cried.

"It's nothing" the guy argued. Nevertheless, he reached into his companion's backpack for first aid.

"I don't know man," I said "You were just lucky I missed your neck"

The man "hmphed" at my comment. "I'm Henry" he said "This is Sam" He looked back up at us "I think I caught your name was Joel? And Kenneth, was it?"

I gave a nod in response.

Ellie introduced herself with a small wave.

"How many are with you?" Joel asked

"They're all dead" Sam said

"Hey," Henry snapped "We don't know that"

While I admired the guy's optimism, I had to agree with Sam. Whoever these guys were with, the Hunters have probably had a field day with them. Some of the corpses I had picked that very day could have probably been them for all I knew.

"There were a bunch of us" Henry continued "Someone had the brilliant idea of entering the city, look for supplies, and those fuckers ambushed us. Scattered us. Now it's all about getting out of this shithole"

"We can help each other" Ellie suggested

"Ellie..." Joel started

"Safety in numbers and all that" she said

I was about to voice my own opinion when Henry spoke up again "She's right. We could help each other. We got a hideout not far from here. Be safer if we chat there"

Joel looked at me, as if wanting my approval. I was surprised, but I guess I was the experienced one after him.

"I don't like groups" I admitted "More numbers means a larger target" I turned to Henry "But, if teaming with you gets us outta dodge, then by all means"

Henry nodded, and so three became five.

"Follow me" he said, and we were off.

"Sorry about the whole... gun thing" Sam apologised.

"Don't worry. I would've probably done the same thing" Ellie admitted "Besides," she continued with a smirk "Kenneth probably wouldn't have killed you anyway. Doesn't like hurting kids"

"Doesn't mean I'm just gonna let you kill me though" I retorted good naturedly "So, where you from?" I asked Sam.

"All the way from Hartford" Sam answered.

I wasn't sure where that was, I had never lived in the zones, but Ellie seemed to know "Really? I heard some bad stuff going on there"

"Yeah, the military abandoned the zone" Henry clarified from ahead of us "It's why we left. Place probably looks like this now"

We went down a floor or two when I spoke up again "We need to be careful. If I'm right, we're near one of their bases"

"You know this place?" Henry asked

"Bits and pieces" I answered "Been here for about a month. Had to move around a lot"

Another floor, "Is it just you and your kids then?" Henry asked Joel.

"What?" I exclaimed

"Oh, he's not my..." Ellie started

"I promised someone I'd look after her" Joel explained "The boy's just tagging along"

"So where you from?" Sam asked me

"Nowhere really" I evaded. I didn't really want to delve into my past. Lots of bad memories. "I was born outside the zones. Just been moving around ever since"

"What about family?"

"Gone"

At least he had the wisdom to drop the subject before I strangled him.

"Hold up" said Joel. He walked up to a door that wasn't sealed and, after testing the lock, broke it open with a shiv. He ducked inside.

"What's he doing?" Henry asked

"Searching for stuff" Ellie explained

"You'd be amazed what you can find behind locked doors" I added

"Hey Ellie!" came Joel's voice from inside the apartment "Found one of them comics you been reading!"

"Cool" Ellie smiled

"You read comic books?" I asked

"When I'm not running from Hunters or Infected, yeah. I read all the time" Ellie replied. I surpressed a chuckle "What?" she asked, suddenly defensive.

"Nothing" I assured her, "Just... nice to see you're normal under all that talk"

"What, you don't read?"

"Not really no" I admitted "Why should I when my life's an adventure" I jokingly added.

Joel came out and we travelled the last flight to ground floor. We emerged into a toy shop when we heard the rumble of the Hunters's humvee outside. We ducked out of sight, and didn't move until the engine was a distant echo.

"Man, that fucking truck" Henry exclaimed "It's been hounding us ever since we got in this damn- Sam what are you doing?"

Sam had picked up some kind of action figure "Nothing"

"Get rid of it" Henry ordered

"But my backpack's practically empty" Sam argued

Henry marched up to his little brother (Yep, decided they're definitely siblings) "What's the rule about taking stuff?"

"It weighs like nothing-"

"The rule! What is it?"

Sam sighed in defeat, dropping the toy to the floor "We only take what we have to"

"That's right. Now come on"

Not sure if I like this guy or not. I can't deny his logic but every kid needs something fun.

Looks like we were on the move again. I saw Ellie pocket the toy that Sam had dropped. I was confused, but I didn't bring it up. We had headed outside when we heard the voices of Hunters.

"Shit. Everyone back" Joel whispered. He reached into his bag and drew a bottle of some kind of brown liquid. He lit a rag tied to the end and suddenly I was staring a molotov cocktail. Joel threw it, it sailed in an arc over a bus landing roughly where the Hunters's voices where coming from. Voices screamed in three-part harmony and then there was quiet. I snuck around the side to see three very burned, very dead Hunters.

"Jesus" I exclaimed. The smell was sickening.

"Let's move on" Joel said "How far's this place of yours?" he asked Henry.

"Close. Real close"

We had to climb onto a truck to get to the floor we wanted, dispatching a pair of Hunters along the way. Then we were back in an office block.

"Just through here" Henry stated

"You sure it's safe, being so close to them?" Joel questioned

"I'd never camp this close" I added.

"I'm the only one with the key" Henry claimed

"And where'd you get that?" Joel asked

"Killed one of them" Henry replied with a smirk "He won't miss it now" He unlocked the door "Through here"

"So... how old are you?" Sam asked Ellie

"Me? Fourteen. You?"

"Uh, the same"

"Oh you're fourteen now?" Henry asked

"I'm close" the little brother insisted.

"Sure you are kid" I said with a smile. He wasn't fooling anyone.

"I am" he muttered.

We stopped outside another door before Henry opened it "Welcome to my office" he said, waving his arm in a grandiose manner.

"How long have you guys been holed up in here?" Ellie asked

"A few days" Sam answered. "We found a bit of food though" he added, gesturing for us to follow him.

He, Ellie and I sat in the corner of the room on the couch, where he revealed a stash of blueberries. I mean, it wasn't bacon but hey, I hadn't eaten anything that day. Beggars can't be choosers.

"So where are you guys heading?" Sam asked

I shrugged my shoulders. It was Ellie who answered "We're looking for the Fireflies"

"Seriously?" I was a tad incredulous. The fireflies were a bunch of delusional pseudo-resistance/terrorists that were looking for a cure for the virus that turned people into Infected. The idea stank of bovine faecal matter (heh, fancy words) to me though. The last Fireflies I saw were two months back, before Pittsburgh. They tried to kill me and take my stuff. Not very heroic people.

"Same" Sam said.

"Why?" I had to ask.

"They're our best chance" Sam stated. He seemed to believe it as well. The kid was naive.

"Got a better idea?" Ellie asked me. There was an edge to her voice. She seemed to believe in these Fireflies as well.

I shrugged my shoulders.

There was a bit of an awkward silence before one of us spoke again. Unsurprisingly, it was Sam "Wanna try something? Try and throw a berry and catch it in your mouth" He then demonstrated, and failed.

I barked a laugh before I could stop myself. Ellie was smiling as well. Sam fortunately didn't seem to embarrassed "You try"

Ellie tossed up a berry, but she didn't do any better. In fact she did worse and the berry hit her in the eye.

"Ow" she exclaimed

Sam and I were in hysterics "A bluberry hurt you?" Sam chuckled.

Ellie's face was red "Okay, then you try" she grunted

So I did, and I succeeded first try. I gave a smug smile.

Ellie playfully punched me on the shoulder "You got lucky"

"This "luck" of mine only seems to pop up when I'm better than you, kid" I joked.

"Least I can shoot" Ellie retorted

"You know how to use a gun?" Sam asked, he sounded both amazed and surprised.

"Yeah. Don't you?"

Sam shook his head "Henry doesn't let me near the things" he said somberly.

"It's okay man" I said, trying to cheer him up (very weird, I know) "I get by without guns just fine"

"We can't all be fucking giants" Ellie playfully jibed.

"What's the matter Ellie? Jealous?" I asked, deliberately trying trying to sound as childish as possible.

"Hell yeah. You realise how hard it is to fight when your my size"

"Hey, I was your size too, at some point. Like when I was ten"

"Oh that's it!" she bellowed, before lunging at me, hands swinging, laughing the whole time. Sam was smiling too.

"Hey guys" Henry called. I thought he was going to reprimand us or something but it seemed he just wanted to tell us his plan.

"Now, there's a guard post down there, blocking our way across the bridge. We're gonna wait til it's night, then we're gonna sneak by them"

Sound plan. I told him as such. I suggested that we got some rest, so we all went to different nooks and crannies around the room for our fifty winks. I picked a spot on the couch, Ellie curling up beside me.

"You're very trusting" I said

"Figured you would've killed by now if you wanted. Besides you look like a good pillow"

"I'll take that as a compliment"

"Take it any way you like" she said, resting her head on my leg. She was out like a light.

I waited, but sleep never came easy to me. Fucking nightmares.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Great Escape**

I never did get any sleep before Henry came over to shake me.

"I'm awake" I waved him away, before shaking Ellie. She mumbled something and looked up at me.

"Better go wake the old guy" I tell her.

She wakes Joel, Henry takes a moment to run the plan past his brother again and then we're off.

"You ever tried this before?" The sound of Joel's texan baritone making me jump ever so slightly.

"Uh... yeah" came Henry's fairly unconvincing reply.

"That's comforting" I snarked.

"Relax guys, we'll be fine" he promised

Despite the fact that the very idea of taking on armed Hunters made me want to crap my pants, I honestly, with this kind of entourage, felt hopeful.

Down a flight of stairs we went, having to drop down when we reached ground floor. There were a pair of Hunters huddled around a fire.

"Let's try to take them out quietly" Henry whispered

Joel and I snuck ahead, and both men died without a sound. Moving out into the open, we had to be careful not to be caught in the Hunters's spotlights. Fortunately, we managed to get in close as the Hunters were distracted by Infected; sniping Clickers further down the street for sport.

"Follow my lead" Joel gave the quiet order.

Joel crept ahead toward the spotlight's generator, while I stealthily killed any Hunter that I laid eyes on. The lights went out, and chaos ensued.

Joel still had a couple rounds left for his shotgun. Point blank range: the bastards never stood a chance. Anyone that survived that was picked off by Henry and Ellie's shots.

It took a bit of effort to force the gate open, but we managed it. Good thing too, because their humvee decided to show up. We only just got through, barring it behind us.

I voiced what everyone was fearing "That won't hold!"

"Let's move!" came Joel's order

We ran, gunning down a couple of Hunters along the way, before our path was blocked by a truck.

"There!" I called. There was a piece of a ladder bolted to the side of the truck. Joel gave Henry a boost up.

"We're good. Sam, let's go" Henry said.

Sam got lifted up, and I gave Ellie a hand. Ladies first and all that.

The ladder chose to break then. Joel and I were still stuck.

The Hunters were ramming the gate. I've seen that thing bash cars aside, the damn gate wasn't going to hold them for long.

"Okay, we gotta get them up" Ellie started panicking.

Henry looked torn. I saw the look in his eye, I knew what he was going to do.

"I'm sorry"

He turned to his brother "We're leaving"

Sam protested, but they left us. Ellie called after them, but they were already gone.

"Ellie!" I called "Get out of here, we'll be fine"

"Fuck that" She jumped back down to us "We stick together"

Joel was already moving, trying to force a warehouse door open "C'mon!" he yelled. I gave him a hand and we got it open, Ellie sliding underneath.

The humvee burst through the gate, its gun swinging at us. We dove under the door, the sound of bullets gouging out the concrete where we stood just moments before.

Ellie made some kind of exasperated grunt "How the fuck do we get outta here?"

"Working on it" I told her. I saw a doorway "This way"

We emerged into what looked like an old bar, Hunters coming in from the other side. We killed them, but a Hunter had managed to match me in a grapple, so I was knocked off my feet while Joel was otherwise occupied. Ellie came to my rescue, jumping onto the fool's back, switchblade in hand. The man howled and swore as the blade dug into his shoulder. He didn't die, but I was back on my feet. I swung my spikey pipe, and I didn't miss. The bladed parts got stuck behind the bastard's jaw though, so I was left with a plain old pipe now.

"Thanks" I panted to my tiny saviour

"You're welcome" she beamed. She held out a hand, as if expecting a high-five. Oh well, why the hell not?

"Yeah"

The way out was tied shut with a bike chain. Ellie got under with no problem, Joel managed with a little difficulty, but I was six-foot-three and a little wider at the shoulders. I couldn't fit.

"Shit!" Ellie exclaimed "Now what?"

I swung my pipe in response. The door was made of glass panes. Easy.

"What?" I asked her. Ellie had a look of disbelief on her face "You never think to do that?"

The humvee had excellent or, depending on your view, shitty timing. Because it turned up again.

"Run!" Joel shouted. I would have made a sarcastic comment about him stating the obvious, but fuck it, we had to run fast.

We ran to the bridge, vaulting barriers and swerving around overturned cars, trucks and buses. Then we saw a problem.

The bridge was out. A giant part of the bridge had been lost, broken by what I couldn't be certain, but one thing was obvious. End of the line.

"Well, shit" I muttered.

"How many bullets you got?" Joel asked Ellie

"They're gonna kill us" Ellie stated

"What other choice do we have?"

"We jump" I argued

"No, it's too high and she can't swim" Joel turned to Ellie again, "I'll boost you up; you run past them"

There was a deafening screech as the humvee started pushing a nearby truck out of the way. We'd be in the gun's sights soon.

"You'll keep me afloat" Ellie said to me. It wasn't a question. I nodded.

"Joel, we're moving!" I shouted. And before the old man could say anything, Ellie and I had jumped.

The river's current was stronger than I had thought. For a moment I couldn't make it to the surface. I managed, gasping for air, when I heard Ellie's cry for help.

I swam towards her, the river's pull speeding me along. I heard the loud splash behind me, it was probably Joel but I didn't have time to stop and look. I grabbed Ellie, keeping her head above water, when my own head hit a rock.

I went out like a light, the last thing I heard was Ellie's panicked voice screaming my name.

* * *

 **Authors Note**

Apologies for this one being a little shorter than the last one, but I really just wanting to make the escape a single chapter on its own.

Anyhow, that's the Pittsburgh arc over. Next up, the Suburbs.


	7. Chapter 7

**Keep Moving On**

 _I woke up, my surroundings strangely familiar._

 _I was in a house, a living room from the looks of it. The couch I rested on was crafted from worn brown leather and oak. The wallpaper I'm guessing was meant to be some kind of cream, but in the years it had faded._

 _I recognised this place. I lived here. Before Pittsburgh. Before..._

 _A woman screams. I know that voice. The name she calls._

 _The growls of an Infected girl._

 _The screams. Oh God, the screaming. I saw it all, I heard it all._

 _She's dead._

 _The Runner looks up at me. A face too familiar. Eyes unrecognisable._

 _It charges._

 _BANG!_

 _The Runner died._

 _A man sobs in the corner._

 _"What have you done?"_

 _BANG!_

I woke up with a panicked shout. Someone grabs my shoulder. I reacted, turning us over, lifting a rock to finish my attacker.

"The fuck Kenneth?!"

That voice. Ellie.

My bleary eyes focus for the first time. I saw Ellie beneath me, suffocating under my weight. I scramble off of her. I look at the rock in my hand. It was a good rock, heavy and sharp, ideal for cracking a skull. I dropped it as if it were suddenly hot to the touch.

"Sorry" I couldn't say much more. My breathing was laboured, panic tightened my throat. I closed my eyes, took a few seconds to regain composure, then looked at Ellie once more.

She surprised me. I was expecting a look of fear, anger, confusion. Her face was all that, and more. I saw... concern.

"What was that?" She asked

I didn't answer her. If I spoke now I might have started crying. Painful memories lingered in my mind: screaming, gunshots, death.

"Kenneth?"

"N... Nightmare" I said at last.

She nodded like she understood. Then she hugged me.

"Fucking hate bad dreams" she said.

We stayed like that for a moment, I don't know how long exactly.

She released me. "Thank you" I whispered.

She shrugged her shoulders "Don't usually do that, but you looked like you really needed one"

"Where are we?" I asked

"A beach of some kind" Ellie answered, "Henry found us, pulled us out the water"

"What about Joel?"

"He's alive. Still hasn't woken up though"

I grunt from not far off alerted us to Joel's awakening.

"Henry! He's awake" came Sam's voice. We gathered round the old man, I was careful to stay out of arm's reach, didn't want Joel lashing out at me or anything.

Joel got to his feet as Henry jogged over.

"See?" Henry grinned "What'd I tell, huh? He's good, everything's fine"

Henry continued speaking as Joel made a slow but speeding beeline towards him. I could see what was going to happen, I had no intention of stopping it.

Joel slammed Henry into the sand, stealing the man's gun and pointing it at his head. "Get back son!" he growled as Sam came between them. Henry waved his brother away "It's fine" he assured him "He's pissed but he's not gonna do anything"

"You sure about that?" Joel snapped

"Stop!" Sam begged

"Joel" Ellie put a calming hand on the man's shoulder.

"Ellie" I spoke "The bastard left us to die"

"No" Henry argued, his voice level and calm "You had a good chance of making it and you did. But coming back for you meant putting my brother at risk. Stay back" Sam had started edging towards them again.

"If it was the other way around, would you have come back for us? I saved you"

"He saved me too" Ellie added "We would've drowned"

Joel looked at me. I hated it, but Henry had a reasonable argument.

"Fucker's got a point" I grunted.

Joel dropped the gun and walked off.

Sam dropped to his brother's side and gave me a dirty look. "I don't like it when people stab me in the back" I growled. I eyeballed Henry for added effect "No matter their reasons"

"You saying there's never been a person that you'd kill for, betray for?" Sam retorted.

My hand went into the pocket where my shiv was, the other one clenched into a fist.

"Kenneth" Ellie warned me.

I took a breath. My nightmare had left my emotions raw and temperamental. It took all my willpower not to hit something.

Henry got to his feet. "You know" he said to Joel "For what it's worth, I'm really glad we spotted you guys"

He started walking, his movements enthusiastic "Now, that radio tower is on the other side of this cliff. Okay? Place is gonna be full of supplies. You gonna be real happy you didn't kill me"

We were off.

"That was intense" Ellie stated. She turned to Joel "You cool?"

"Yeah" came his reply "Let's go find that radio tower"

Oh yeah, forgot to say, Henry and his survivor buddies, before they all died that is, had came up with the plan to regroup at a nearby radio tower, where they had stored supplies or something like that. Anyway, that's why we're looking for this tower now.

"Hey guys" I alerted them, pointing ahead. Maybe there's some stuff on that boat over there". I was of course referring to what looked like a small fishing boat. It had ran aground, plants were growing through the holes in its hull. It had obvoiusly been there for a long time.

Joel searched the boat and found some small crafting supplies, and a comic for Ellie. As well as that, there was a small letter, written by a guy called Ish, asking us not to step on his skull should we find his corpse. I kinda liked this guy.

"Woah" Ellie exclaimed

"What?" Joel asked

"First time on a boat" she explained

"It's a lot different in the water"

"One step at a time" Ellie smirked

"Hey Ellie!" Sam called "I think we've found something!"

"Let's go see what it is" Ellie said

"Ladies first" I joked

We followed Sam up the hill, where we found Henry trying to pry open a sewer outlet pipe.

"I bet..." he grunted when he saw us "that this goes all the way through"

"You need a hand?" I asked

"Yeah" his answer was blunt.

It took the combined strength of Henry, Joel and myself to lift the grate. Everyone crawled in, and soon we were in one of the most spacious sewers I had ever seen in my life.

And it was dark. Really, really dark.

I hated the dark. I hated being blind, unable to see your own hand in front of your face, unable to see whatever Infected lurked in the shadows, whatever danger lay in wait.

Flashlights went on, and I sighed with relief.

"Sam..." Henry started

"Stay close" his brother finished for him

"Someone's finally learning" he smiled

The path eventually split into two. Ellie, Joel and I went one way while Henry and Sam went the other way.

"I hate this place" I growled as we trudged through the sewer's filth.

We found a gate, which was blocked (naturally). Fortunately there was a vent could lead to the other side, and Ellie was small.

Joel reached down and ripped the grating of the vent, the rusted bolts breaking like gingerbread. A few rats ran out in response.

"Oh yeesh" Ellie exclaimed "That's a big rat"

"Don't like rats?" I asked her

"About as much as you hate the dark"

I scowled at her, she just smiled in response "What, you thought I didn't notice?"

She had wisely decided to get into the vent now, emerging on the other side. Past the gate was a dead end, but there was a machete on the shelf. I handed Joel my pipe and took the blade for myself. It was awesome.

"You think they'll stay with us all the way to Tommy's?" Ellie asked Joel. She must have been referring to the two brother.

"Dunno, we'll see how everything pans out" he answered

"Who's Tommy?" I asked

"Joel's brother" Ellie explained

"He was a Firefly" Joel elaborated

We caught up with Henry and Sam. They were stuck in this large open room. It was flooded and there was no way across.

"I can't swim" Sam stated

"Am I the only young guy around here who can bloody swim?" I complained. I wasn't really expecting an answer.

Joel gestured to a floodgate "Maybe this leads somewhere" He tried to turn the wheel to open it, but it was jammed. He jumped into the scummy water.

"Kenneth, when I tell you to, you're gonna turn that wheel. Understand?"

"Yes sir"

He dove under the surface, and came back about twenty seconds later.

"Try it now"

I did, and it opened. Joel swam through, promising he'd be back soon.

So we waited.

"So what about you?" Ellie spoke up

"What about me?" I asked

"You gonna stay with us?"

I won't deny I hadn't thought about it. Initially I just wanted to stick around long enough to get out of Pittsburgh, and I wasn't ready to risk another disaster (No! Bad Kenneth, back to reality!) but I'd be lying if Ellie hadn't grown on me in a way.

"I think I might" I answered

She smiled at that.

Joel came back, pushing along an industrial pallet.

"Hop on" he told Ellie. She did so as if they had done it a thousand times before. Joel pushed her to the other side, where she fired up an old generator, and a platform moved the rest of us over. Henry pulled Joel up and out of the water and we were on our way again.

"Uh, what's up with this?" Ellie wondered aloud.

We had come across a door, not too unusual, except that this door had been drawn on in what looked like crayon. I looked like a child's scribble of a castle.

"You think maybe there's people inside?" Sam asked

"Could be" was Henry's reply

"Are we really going in there?" I asked. I ddin't want to admit it but the kiddie drawings in such a setting as a sewer really made me uncormfortable, nervous.

"No choice" Joel put it bluntly.

Joel pushed the door open, then something crashed.

* * *

 **Authors Note**

And thus begins the Sewer/Suburbs arc. Enjoy!


	8. Chapter 8

**What We Are in the Dark**

Joel opened the door to a loud crashing noise. Someone had rigged a trap of some kind. A box of bottles had hit the floor when the door opened.

I'll admit I almost shat myself.

"It's a sound trap" Joel stated

"A what?" Ellie repeated

"It's sort of an alarm" I explained

"I don't hear anything"

"Someone used to live here" Henry concluded

"Don't look like that's the case anymore" Joel said.

"Who would stay in here?" Sam wondered aloud.

"Well, someone who thought they could keep a place like this safe" Henry deduced

Joel stopped at a workbench, picking something up. I couldn't tell what it was in the low light, but when I saw it, I recoiled in shock.

No, it couldn't be. It was so similar.

No, it wasn't the same one. Similar model maybe.

It kind of looked like a sawed-off shotgun. Small enough to be held in a pistol's holster. This one was a more expert cut than the last one I had seen. Smoother, less rushed it seemed, as if it weren't just done with a blunt hacksaw. Different colour too. Didn't make it any less unnerving.

Joel picked it up, and admired it in the torchlight. "We could use this" he said aloud.

"Leave it" I said. I was probably being irrational, but I really, _really_ didn't like that gun.

Joel looked at me as if I had spontaneously grown a second head "Not ditching a good gun. Besides... They'll have left ammo around for this here shorty" He holstered the gun to hip without another word.

The old man was right though. We did find a lot of bullets for the thing. Ellie also found a soccer ball, and a set of goals drawn onto the wall with chalk.

"Awesome"

"Uh, Ellie..." Joel started

"Ah, calm down" Ellie cut him off.

We got out of the way, as Ellie kicked the ball at the goals. Sam managed to save it though, catching it in his hands.

"Henry, did you see that?!" Sam grinned at his brother.

Henry was silent "Let's keep it down buddy, okay?" he suggested.

"Okay" Sam looked crestfallen.

We continued down through the tunnels, when we heard a familiar cry. Infected.

They came spilling down the steps ahead of us, a few Runners and a Clicker. We made short work of them in the tunnel, Joel's new shorty sounding deafening in the enclosed space. It's bang, like the world's loudest firecracker echoing in my mind and memory.

Back to reality, Kenneth. Back to reality.

There was a moment of silence as we caught our breath. I was the first to break it. "Well. I guess we know now what happened to these people"

"Seeing how there was a Clicker, they've been gone for a while"

We searched the room from where the Infected came from. Inside we found some kind of rain-catcher. There was a note from one of the people living here, it seemed there were kids here. Poor bastards.

We moved on. We came across another room. Inside we found a man's corpse, hand over his chest like he died that way, an empty bottle of pills in his stiffened hand. Written on the floor before him, words scrawled in blood. THEY DID NOT SUFFER.

"Who were...?" I asked, before I lost my voice. I saw what the man was talking about. On the other side of the room was a tarp, covering several small bodies. Children's bodies.

"Jesus Christ" Joel quietly exclaimed.

I was suddenly angry. In a spin, I swung my machete, embedding itself about halfway through the dead man's skull.

"The hell's wrong with you?" Joel demanded to know.

"He didn't have to do this" I growled "Fucking coward. Fucking suicidal, stupid shit!" I thwacked the corpse a couple more times, the top of his head came off, cold brain matter spilling onto the floor.

"It's not an easy way out kid" Joel placated.

"There's always a way out. There's _always_ a chance" I argued, my voice guttural, seething with fury "Suicide is never, _never_ an answer. You fight, you survive. That's it!"

"He probably thought he was doing the kids a favour" the older man reasoned.

I hated that. Reason. Some sensible, stupid justification to giving up. To fucking death.

I was no longer in those sewers. I was back in time, memories I never wanted to relive. A sobbing, broken man in the corner. His gun pointing upwards into his open mouth...

No!

I stormed out that room. I had to get away from that place. "Let's move" I ordered

So we moved on. Joel and Henry had finished looting anyway.

I was my fault. I set off the trap. I had walked through a gate, setting off a weight that sent a floodgate or something land between us. Me, Joel and Sam on one side, Henry and Ellie on the other.

"Must've triggered some kind of safety or something" Joel theorised. He took a moment to give me the stink eye "Henry, see if we can lift this"

They got to work, while the rest of us just stood around.

"So, this is awkward" Ellie stated with a smile.

I had to grin at that. It diffused the tension in the air, if only for a moment.

The infamous sound of Clickers approached on their side, so Henry and Ellie had to run. We headed our own way, promising to meet up with them on the other side, when we walked into our own little pack of Infected.

There were a couple of Clickers, but they were relatively easy, they ran straight into the path of Joel's bullets, or within range of a brick so I could stun them and slice them up. No, the worst part were the Stalkers.

Stalkers are rare, but infuriatingly dangerous buggers. They're almost as strong as a Clicker, but they still have their sight. The worst part about them was that they liked dark places, and hid around corners to ambush their prey. We had to be patient to kill them. They would sometimes get stir-crazy and run between hiding spots, we'd get them then, either by bullet or machete.

We walked on, passing through what we could only assume was a makeshift classroom.

"How do you think it happened?" Sam asked us.

"I don't know" Joel answered "Lord knows they didn't deserve it"

The old man boosted the kid up to get a ladder and me managed to walk down one of the higher passages, which led us right back to Ellie and Henry. They were still running.

"Fucking thing!" Ellie cursed as she blindly fired a round behind her.

Not only had more Clickers started chasing them, but about half a dozen Runners had joined the ranks of Infected as well. We took the only smart option, we ran.

Our escape of course was naturally blocked by a gate. Sam had to quickly crawl under the wire to remove the pipe that had it locked. I took the pipe just in case, and we ran further. Up stairwells, down slopes, it didn't matter because the Infected still followed.

We came to a dead end. A locker room or something, a makeshift armoury too. Some molotovs, homemade bombs and a shotgun laid around.

"Guys!" I alerted the others. Sunlight shone in from a window. We were above the surface.

"Boost me out that window!" Ellie commanded. Henry did as she asked, and the same to Sam, despite his protests. That left the three of us to hold the line until the door got opened.

Joel planted some of the bombs, taking the shotgun for himself, Henry grabbed the molotovs and held them at the ready. I stood there, pipe in one hand and a machete in the other, ready for any Infected bastard to come within swinging range.

A wailing cry, the Infected had caught up.

The Runners were naturally the first ones to go. Their unaffected sight gave them a confident run. Some were shredded instantly by the bombs. Henry threw the molotovs next, and some other Infected were burned to a crisp. Joel and Henry unloaded round after round, but the bastards kept coming.

I had my hands busy alright. My melee dual-wield combo was working a treat. My machete was sharp enough to easily cleave through the weakened skulls of the infected, and a bash from my pipe almost immediately afterwards knocked my blade them loose for another victim. Slash, bash, repeat. I had a perfect rhythm going. Until a Clicker lunged at me. I didn't react in time, and instead of cutting into its head the machete became impaled in its stomach. It died, but the only reason I didn't suffer the love-bite-of-death was thanks to that damn pipe, which I jammed between its rotten gnashers.

"We got it!" I heard Ellie's shout.

I shoved the dead Clicker away from me, unable to draw my weapons from its body. I drew my trusty shiv, shanking one unlucky Runner in the brainstem before ducking through the door.

We slammed it behind us, locking it once more. We were out of the sewers, and in the light of the morning sun.

Henry panted "Fresh air!" he exclaimed, breathing deeply.

I had to agree with him. Never before had air tasted so good.

"Look" Sam said, pointing at the wall. We followed his gaze. There, written on the wall clear as day in red, were the words:

WARNING  
INFECTED INSIDE  
DO NOT OPEN

"Oh, are you fucking kidding me?"


	9. Chapter 9

**All Good Things...**

"For fucks sake" I groaned

"Thanks for the warning on the other side guys!" Ellie muttered sarcastically.

"So where's this tower?" Joel asked

"We're close" Henry answered "C'mon. Let's go"

So we were off.

I hung at the back of the group near Ellie. "How you holding up?" I asked her.

"I'm alright" was her answer "Hey Joel!" she called over to her guardian a few feet ahead "While we were split up, I killed a couple of Infected by myself. You proud?"

Joel grunted something like "Yeah" in reply, I couldn't tell very well.

"Hey, look at that!" Henry called. It was the radio tower. I could see it now in the distance. If I was right (and I usually am, not to brag) it was probably on the other side of the village-town-suburb-whatever we were currently in.

"What I'd tell you, huh?" Henry smiled

"Let's find a way around to it" Joel, ladies and gentlemen. All business, he was.

We decided to search some houses along the way. The first house we ducked into we decided that splitting up would save time. I checked upstairs, and I found an old note but not much else. I came down to find Ellie and Sam chatting on the sofa.

"How did you guys end up together" the boy asked.

"Oh... I..." Ellie had to contemplate on how to answer, "A friend of mine, Marlene, asked Joel to take me to the Fireflies"

"You seem to get along pretty well" Sam noted

"Yeah, well we had a rocky start. Now I kinda boss him around" Ellie chuckled "Ain't that right Joel!"

Joel was in the kitchen, and seemed to ignore her.

"And what about you" Sam asked me "How do figure into this?"

"I tried to kill Ellie" I answered plainly "She tried to kill me. We compromised"

"We met back in the city" Ellie elaborated "I was seperated from Joel, and I ran into him. We attacked each other, but neither of us really wanted to kill the other. So he offers to help me find Joel, and well, we've been stuck with him since"

"Wow" I said "When you put it like that it sounds like we've not been together for long"

"Only a couple days" Joel said, walking past us.

"Really. Shit" I felt kind of stunned.

We stopped outside another house. This one was too well fortified to break into, even after all these years, but it was the writing on the wall that caught our attention.

"Will shoot on sight" Sam read aloud.

"Sound like friendly people" I joked.

"First few months after the outbreak, they had a lot of looting" Henry explained "Everybody got real paranoid. You remember any of that Joel?"

"Everyone barricaded themselves in their homes" Joel said "Then supplies started running low. That's when you saw what people are really capable of"

With those cheery memories, we trudged on, stopping at another house. This one was easy to get into, what with an entire section of wall having fallen away. We searched the kitchen, where I found a pair of scissors, which I pocketed for later.

"I was only five when the cordyceps hit" Henry announced "My memory's pretty hazy, but remember living in a neighborhood just like this one"

"What do you remember?" Ellie asked

"Uh, barbecues. My parents, they would throw these crazy big barbecues and invite a ton of people. You know, I remember the smell more than anything"

I wasn't quite sure what a barbecue was, but I decided not to pry. Seemed like a nice memory anyway.

We moved further down the street, where there was this weird multicoloured van in the way.

"What's this?"

"This is an ice cream truck" said Sam.

"A what?" Ellie seemed just as confused as I was.

"Henry told me about these. They'd sell ice cream out of the truck" he explained

"Seriously?"

"No way. Joel?" Ellie looked to the old man for clarification.

"It's true" Joel chuckled "This thing would drive around and play loud creepy music and kids would come running out to buy ice cream"

I was speechless. The idea sounded so foreign to me. Ice cream was almost non-existent nowadays. The idea that you could just walk out and buy some was just so... so alien.

"You people lived in a strange time" Ellie spoke what I was thinking.

My eyes landed on a pair of scuffling dogs further down the road "Hey look"

"Aww, doggies" Ellie cooed.

"You're gonna wanna stay clear of those Ellie" Joel warned her "It ain't like in the zone. Those are wild"

The dogs ran at the sight of us anyway. A shame though, I knida liked animals. You know, when they're not out for my blood, like a certain mosquito on the back of my neck... got it.

We headed into another abandoned home, its front door hanging wide open. Henry and Joel went to search the house, while Sam, Ellie and I took a moment to breath in the living room.

"Darts" Ellie somwhat-offered somewhat-stated. She had found an old dartboard hanging on the wall, complete with a few darts.

"Okay" Sam was in.

I decided to stand back and enjoy the show.

Sam threw first. It was a bad shot. "Damn it"

"My turn" Ellie nudged him aside. Her shot was mildly better.

"Boosh. I am a natural" she bragged

"Luck" Sam grumbled, going for another shot.

"No, it wasn't" Ellie argued.

"It was luck" the boy insisted. He threw his dart. It was better than last time. He smiled with a confident chuckle.

"Alright, get outta here. You're getting cocky" Ellie threw her second dart. Needless to say, it wasn't very good.

"Fuck"

"Horrible"

"Alright, It's a tie" Ellie announced

"Uh, no" Sam complained "No, you clearly got destroyed"

"How did I clearly get destroyed. That's practically a tie!"

I decided I'd seen enough. I walked up beside Ellie, skillfully pulled her knife from her pocket and, with the flick of a wrist, embedded it into the dartboard. It wasn't quite a bullseye, but it was much better than what they had managed.

"Bitch please" I smirked at their speechless faces.

"That was cool" Ellie admitted.

Sam walked away "Lucky shot" he grumbled. He was clearly a sore loser.

Joel came back not long after that, so we left and came to a dead end. On the wall was a familiar looking piece of grafitti. A Firefly logo.

"Fireflies were here" Henry noted.

"Yeah, by the looks of it" Joel agreed

"How're we gonna find them?" Henry asked.

"I knew a guy. My brother actually. He was a Firefly" Joel replied "Last I heard he was in Wyoming. We get there, we find him, we find the Fireflies. Whaddya say, you in?"

"Sounds like good plan, man" Henry agreed.

Personally, I thought the plan was pish. I mean, so much could go wrong with such a vague idea. Find one man in a massive state, if he was even still there. And how about how we were going to get there. We were barely out of Pittsburgh.

"Long way to Wyoming" I stated

"Gotta try it" Ellie insisted.

We decided we had to move on by cutting back through the houses, Joel and Henry in the lead, discussing potential ways to Wyoming. I looked at Ellie, she was fishing around in her back for something. Whatever it was, a big cheesy grin grew on her face as she whipped it out. It was a small book.

"Okay!" she announced "You're killing me with your downer talk. It's joke book time!"

"Dafuck?" I blurted.

"Just go with it" Joel sighed. He suddenly looked very tired.

"You wanna hear a joke about pizza?" Ellie read "Nevermind, it was too cheesy"

"I don't get it" Me and Sam said nearly unamimously.

"Yeah, me neither" Ellie shrugged before moving onto her next joke. "What did the green grape say to the purple grape? Breathe, you idiot!"

I'll admit I chuckled at that one, but I also had to shake my head.

"I've got one for you" Sam offered.

"Alright, let's hear it" I said.

"Why can't your nose be twelve inches long?"

"I don't know, why?" Ellie asked

"Your nose?" I repeated, seriously pondering the question.

"Because... then it would be a foot" Sam smiled.

"That's so dumb" Ellie laughed "I love it"

Sam smile grew even wider at that.

So we managed to get past this block, cutting through the other houses, we jumped down a ledge onto the next street when a loud _CRACK_ kicked up the dirt in front of us.

"Shit!" Joel hissed "Sniper"

We took cover behind the nearest car, which could fortunately hide us all. My brain was immediately running scenarios and plans, not many of them looking good.

"We need to kill that bastard" I spoke plainly.

"Y'all stay here" Joel ordered.

"What?" I demanded

"No!" Ellie whined, almost simultaneously with me.

"Before you start," Joel interuppted "I need you guys to keep him busy. I'm gonna go around and see if I can't get the angle on him"

"That's your plan?" I questioned "Leave us for the fucking bait?"

"You got a better plan kid?" Joel argued.

"Yeah, actually. I'll go get the guy. I'm much better at this sneaky shit"

"You won't be able to use the rifle once he's dead though"

Fair point. I decided to not argue any further.

"Fine" I settled with saying that aloud.

So Joel snuck off, and within seconds I couldn't see him any more. The four of us were left like sitting ducks, firing blind shots at whatever direction bullets seemed to be coming from.

Eventually, Hunters came up from behind us, and our current cover wouldn't suffice, so we had to run. Fortunately Joel seemed to have gained control of the sniper at this point, because the Hunters started to drop like flies when they stuck their heads out of cover.

One did manage to sneak up on us though. Joel, Ellie and Henry must've not seen him. I saw him however. He tried to vault over the hood of the car we were hiding behind when I threw a brick at him. It struck him in the shoulder, stunning him long enough to wrap my arms around him. There was a sickening crunch as I slammed his head against the car. One dead Hunter, free of charge.

"Watch out!" Ellie cried, and I had to duck as she fired a round bewteen a Hunter's eyes. I nodded a thank you, and we got back to work.

Eventually the Hunters pulled back, where their secret weapon revealed itself. That fucking humvee.

"Everybody down!" I yelled, as the monster opened fire. Whoever was driving that beast was taunting us, but I could barely hear them over the sounds of the bullets banging against our vehicular cover.

"Kenneth, look out!" I heard Henry cry. I looked up to see a molotov sailing towards me, I rolled away, the spot where I just was now a singed mess of grass and dirt.

A Hunter was about to toss another, when a well-placed shot from Joel killed the man instantly, the still lit molotov falling back into the tank. The humvee burned from the inside-out, speeding into the side of a building. A single body dived out, his charcoaled body writhing in agony. I stomped on his head, and it cracked like a melon. He was dead.

"Shit!" exclaimed Ellie "That was intense!"

"You're telling me" I responded

"You good Sam?" Henry calls

"Yeah!"

Ellie looked towards the end house, throwing a thumbs up "Thanks Joel"

A for a moment, everything was good.

Then the Infected showed up.

A Runner and a Clicker charged at us from around the corner. In the moment it took us to register what was happening, Henry and Sam had been tackled to the ground.

I ran at the Clicker pinning Sam, and with a kick I sent the humanoid monstrosity sprawling, jamming my scissors into its neck. I dragged Sam to his feet.

"Sam!" Henry was hysterical "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" Sam reassured him.

The wails of oncoming Infected spurred us to start running. We made a beeline for the house Joel was in, and slammed the door behind us.

"That's not gonna hold!" I told Joel as he came stomping down the stairs.

"Anybody hurt?" he asked in response. Everyone was fine.

"Alright, I think it's time we quit this place. C'mon!" the old man said. We ran out the back door, and we didn't stop until we came to the radio tower.

By then the sun was setting, so we decided to set up camp for the night. I managed to get a fire going, and soon, we were bonding like friends. Jesus, it's been ages since I told a campfire story.

"Shut the hell up" Henry said, an massive grin across his face.

"Dead serious" Joel assured him. He was telling a story back from the old pre-cordyceps days. "It was Tommy's birthday. That's all he wanted to do. Just rent two Harleys and drive cross country"

I was guessing a Harley was some kind of motorcycle. Henry was listening with the look of a child.

"Oh man" Henry sighed "I could die happy if I could just ride one around the block. What was it like?"

Joel seemed to think for moment, "It was good. It was real good"

"Good?" Henry looked incredulous. "Can you believe this guy?" he looked over his shoulder to look at me and Ellie "C'mon man, give me details. Describe it"

Ellie got to her feet "Okay, you guys clearly need some alone time"

"No no, Ellie. This isn't any regular motorcycle. Okay?" Henry stressed. "You get on that bad boy, you feel that engine. Nothing like it"

"Oh yeah? How would you know?" I smirked.

Henry smiled back "I've seen it in my dreams" He pointed in arms outwards "Vroom vroom!"

I laughed at that. Ellie decided she wanted to check up on Sam. He had decided to sit in the next room and check inventory.

Henry's smile faded "I don't think anyone from our group is gonna show up"

I could have told him that from the start, but right now didn't feel like the best time to say that.

"Yeah" Joel gave a weary sigh.

"Worst part about it all... explaining it to Sam" Henry muttered.

I decided to take my leave as well. "Sam'll understand" I say as I went for the door "He's smarter than you think"

Moving into the next room, I found Ellie and Sam in a seemingly serious conversation as well. They stopped to look at me as I came into the room.

"What you guys talking about?" I asked them

"What are you scared of?" Sam asked me. He was over by the window, looking over a view of the countryside.

I kind of wanted to laugh off his question, brag about how I wasn't scared of anything, the usual bravado. But something in Sam's eyes made me honest.

"Lots of things" I admitted "The dark. Heights. The Infected. Dying. Stuff like that"

"Yeah" Sam sighed.

"What about you?" Ellie asked the young boy.

"Those things out there" I guessed he was talking about the Infected. Ellie seemed to think the same thing, given how she nodded like she understood.

"What if the people are still inside?" Sam asked us "What if they're in there, without any control of their body. I'm scared of that happening to me"

"Hey" Ellie started "You're part of a team now. We're gonna help each other out"

"Trust me" I assured "They may look like people, but the person themselves... they're not there anymore. You know what I mean?"

"Henry says they've "moved on"" he says "That they're with their families. Like in heaven. You guys think any of that's true"

"I try not to think about it" I tell him honestly "You never really know, so why bother, am I right?"

"I... go back and forth" Ellie admitted "I mean, I'd like to believe it but..."

"But you don't" Sam finished.

"I guess not" she shrugged.

"Yeah" Sam sighed "Me neither" I couldn't put my finger on it, but he seemed so... tired, Iguessed.

Ellie made a sudden noise like she just got an static shock or something, and she rummaged in her bag for something. "All this serious talk, I almost forgot"

She pulled out the old action figure that she had pocketed in Pittsburgh. The one that Sam had wanted but Henry wouldn't let him keep.

I smiled. She was a nice girl.

"There" she puts it on the table next to Sam "If he doesn't know about it, he can't take it away" she says with a smile.

She turned to the door "I'm pooped. See ya tomorrow"

I give Sam a small nod, and leave to go sleep myself. I found a nice, relatively clean spot near the fire, Ellie choosing to rest her head on my stomach.

"You know, if you're going to keep this up, I might charge you" I joked.

"Shut up and go to sleep" she smiled back.

I did actually manage to sleep that night. When I woke up it actually seemed like I had managed to sleep in as well. Ellie was just starting to stir as well.

"Morning" Joel smiled at us, or whatever passed as a smile off that man.

Henry was cooking something. It smelled fantastic.

"Damn. That smells good" There goes Ellie, voicing my thoughts again.

"Thought I'd let the young couple sleep in" the man joked.

"Shut up" I smiled. I cursed at the feeling of warmth in my face. I knew Henry was joking but... I mean I won't deny I thought Ellie was cute... but no. Just no.

Ellie clambered to her feet, "Where's Sam?" she asked.

"I let him sleep in for once" Henry replied, gesturing to the other room.

"Oh" she sounded almost disappointed

"Hey" I spoke up, "If you want him to join us, go wake him up" I smiled. Ellie looked at Henry, who shrugged, and off she went.

I squatted down to look at the meal "What is it?"

The answer was lost in the sound of Ellie's scream.

She came barreling through the door, knocked to the ground by something. Shit, it was Sam! But the sounds weren't his. Those weren't his eyes.

"He's turning!" I yell. Joel goes for his gun. I charged at Sam, but Henry let off a shot from his gun, cutting a groove into my shinbone. I fell to the ground with a curse.

"That's my fucking brother!" he shouts, pointing the gun at Joel, who still hadn't gotten his.

Pain flared in my leg, I could barely stand. I stared at Ellie, struggling to keep the Infected boy off of her, I saw history flashing in front of my eyes. I stared a Joel, my eyes pleading. Save her!

"Screw it" he muttered, and dashed for his gun. Henry fired, but not at him, but at Sam. A clean headshot straight through his infected skull. Ellie shoved his limp body off with a grunt.

"Ellie" Joel and I scrambled towards her "Are you okay?" She nodded.

"Thank God" I sighed with relief.

"Sam?" came Henry's voice. It sounded so small, so broken.

"Oh no" I breathed. I'd seen this all before. It couldn't happen again. Not again.

"Sam?" Henry was on the verge of tears now.

Joel moved towards him, arms oustretched. "Henry" his voice calm.

Ellie moved to get up, but I grabbed her arm "Stay back"

"Henry" Joel repeated, moving ever closer to the sobbing, hysterical wreck "I'm gonna get that gun from you, okay?"

Henry looked at him, and pointed his gun at him. Joel froze.

"It's your fault" he sobbed

"This isn't anyone's fault, Henry" I pleaded.

It didn't matter. The man was inconsolable, broken beyond repair.

He yelled, bleary eyes staring, focusing on nothing "This is all your fault!"

The barrel flew to his temple. BANG! Henry fell dead at our feet.

That shot seemed to echo on for hours.


	10. Chapter 10

**Secrets**

We spent the rest of the day in some kind of souless haze. Ellie didn't crack a joke, Joel didn't glare or growl (which is actually worse) and I didn't have the drive to do anything. The deaths of Sam and Henry hit us all.

We buried them, just outside the radio tower. Ellie made little markers for their graves, a nice touch, if a little needless. We didn't say anything, we just left after that, and never looked back.

I know you're not meant to speak ill of the dead, but what the hell? Why? Why choose death? Why did he have to fucking break? Death doesn't make anything better, it doesn't heal pain, it just fucks everything up more. It leaves the poor bastards like Ellie, Joel, me all fucked up and broken inside. It. Does. Not. Solve. Anything.

Okay, rant over. For now anyway. God only knows what we're going to face next.

We stopped at a cabin for the night. I slept for about an hour maybe, before the haunting imagery of Henry's gunshots made me bolt awake. I sit up, the cold floor of the room making me feel stiff and sore. Joel took the sofa you see, and we gave the bed to Ellie. I could see them both in this single-roomed cabin. I walked about the room as silently as I could, trying to stave away the pain in my back. Joel stirred a little and I froze, but he mumbled something, some girl's name. He was still dreaming. I went over to Ellie, and sat by her.

I couldn't understand that girl, I swear to God. You could tell she had seen some serious stuff, stuff no kid should've never had to see. You could see it in her eyes, that old look of pain and melancholy, but her she is, sleeping peacefully, her movements slow, calm. If I'm honest she reminded me of my... ohfuckohfuckohfuck!

I froze, my breathing laboured again. Loud and panicked. If I wasn't careful I may have waked someone. The thought never really ocurred to me at the time of course, all that I saw, all I could think about was that mark on her arm.

She was bitten.

The dark did nothing to fool me. It was there. Marks like human teeth sunken into her skin, the cold, puss-coloured fungus lined her injury.

Sam, it had to be. She would've turned by now otherwise.

I started to cry then. I knew what would happen, what had to happen. Memories raw in my head. Screams, gunshots, tears. That constant question why? Why?

My shiv was in my hands. I held it gingerly, as if it were hot, twirling it in my trembling fingers.

I had to do it. Joel wouldn't kill her, he wouldn't kill his own girl. I barely knew her, I had to be me.

The thought brought me so much pain. I sat there, crying for God knows how long, when I heard a concerned voice "Kenneth?" I look up. It's Ellie. I must've woken her.

"What's wrong?" she looks at me with those eyes. Eyes so sad, too old and sad and full of concern to be a fourteen-year-olds. My eyes stung with my own tears.

"I'm sorry" I tell her. I lunge.

She spins away, my shiv scratching her cheeks. She cries out in surprise, in alarm. The only thing louder than her cries were my sobs. Something crashes into me. The force of a charging bull sends me crashing into a bookshelf. I'm not knocked out, you get used to these blows, so I strike back, my shiv now fallen from my grasp.

Joel knocks me back against the shelf again, but I had strength to match his. We go sprawling, hitting the cold wooden floor with indentical thuds. He's on his feet faster, and kicks me in the nose. My own blood stains his boot. I recover, and swing my leg at his, unbalancing him. I'm back on my feet, throwing punches that would make any boxer proud, but Joel can take his blows. He hits back, just as hard, just as fast. He swings an arm around my neck, and squeezes.

"Joel, stop!" I hear Ellie's cry.

Joel keeps his hold for a few seconds more, then drops my oxygen-starved body to the floor. I gasp for air, and lie there. I spat out a bloody piece of tooth and tried to rise, only to sink to my knees again, my adrenaline having gone. I started to cry again. "I'm trying to help" I say "She'll kill us all"

"The hell are you talking about?" Joel growled

"SHE'S INFECTED!" I yelled. Joel froze as if he'd been slapped. I look to Ellie, her eyes wide, horrified. "You're infected" my voice barely a whisper.

We were all still, seconds went by, maybe a full minute, before Ellie spoke up, her voice quiet and hesitant "Kenneth, it's not what you think..."

"No!" I snapped "I know what happens! We all know what happens! You get bitten, you die, or you turn. Everyone knows that! Sam bit you, and now you're gonna turn, and then you're gonna try and kill us, just like Sam! Just like..." my voice went quiet "Just like Emma"

Emma. My little sister. So full of life, so trusting. She tried to help the man that bit her, too young to understand. Then one morning she tears my mom's throat out with her teeth. My dad kills her. My dad, guilt-ridden, kills himself. And me, fourteen years old, watched as his entire family dies within the space of ten minutes. Fourteen, and all alone.

And now it was happening all over again.

My crying continued. I look back on that night embarrassed, but when you hit rock bottom, there's no such thing as shame.

"Kenneth" Ellie speaks again "Kenneth, look at me" So I do. I look up at her, her face concerned, eyes shining with restrained tears. "I'm not turning. This bite is old. I'm immune"

"Don't lie to me!" I shouted at her, shooting to my feet "Don't fucking lie to me! No one is immune, no one!"

"It's the truth" she argues, her voice quiet and pleading "I swear"

"She's telling the truth kid" Joel said "I wouldn't have believed it either, but it's true"

I fall back down to my knees, energy spent, out of tears. Ellie crouches down to my level, and holds me in a hug.

"Kenneth" she whispers "Do you trust me?"

I couldn't bring myself to speak, so I answer with a small nod.

"Then trust me. I'm fine. I'm not gonna die"

We hold each other in silence, the sound our breathing the only audible thing in that lonely cabin.

I took a deep, shaky breath.

"Okay"

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Well, that was a big moment.

I'm a little unsure if I did this scene credit or to its full potential, so could any readers please leave me some critique (or praise) and tell what I could do to improve something like this at any point in the future.

Anyway, thanks for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

**A Dam Family Reunion**

We've been travelling for days now, long enough that the leaves have turned from their constant green to a beautiful kaleidoscope of yellows and reds. Fall had arrived.

I'll admit it took me a while to completely come round to the idea of immunity, and in the days afterwards I was still wary around Ellie, but as days turned into weeks without any signs I was made a believer.

Their plan was, in theory, simple. The duo had left Boston to find the Fireflies's main base of operations, where they had scientists still working on a cure. With Ellie, their chances had increased from non-existant to slim, but it was a chance everyone involved was willing to take. To find the Fireflies, we had to first find Joel's brother, who we had tracked to Jackson City in Wyoming.

Joel was trekking ahead in front of us, while Ellie and I hung behind. I was currently grilling her for information about life in the QZs.

"So you actually had friends?" I asked.

"Gee, thanks" she muttered

"No, sorry. I mean you actually had the time to make friends? I mean out here, if they're not part of the group, there not a friend, you know what I mean?"

She nodded "Don't get me wrong, I wasn't super popular, I hate to admit it, but I had a few friends"

"Like who?"

"Just a few soldiers and some Fireflies. The only person my age was..." her gaze dropped "Was Riley" her voice barely whispered.

Dammit, I should've never brought the subject up. I could tell I'd hit a nerve, a lost one. "I'm sorry"

"It's okay" she spoke up "It's just, I haven't even told Joel about it"

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to" I assured her.

"Thanks" she smiled "I'll tell you the story one day, promise"

"Okay"

Then I walked straight into a road sign.

"Ow! Dammit!"

Ellie seemed to think it was hilarious, even Joel cracked a small smile. It wasn't long before I was chuckling at my own stupidity though, so it was all good.

"Hey look" Ellie said, pointing at the sign "Jackson County" she read aloud. She turned to Joel, "Means we're close to Jackson City, right?"

"Shouldn't be more than a few miles" Joel figured

"Ready for a family reunion, old man?" I jested

"I'm just ready to get there" Joel sighed

"You nervous?" Ellie asked

"I don't know what I'm feeling" the old man admitted.

Mustn't have been a happy parting.

We were walking gain when I finally asked "So what happened with you guys?"

"What?"

"You and your brother. You're not together, so clearly something happened"

"We just had a bit of a disagreement, that's all" he answered

"Okay then..." I pressed

"What was it about?" Ellie voiced my question before me.

"Tommy saw the world one way, I saw it the other" Joel explained

"And that's why he joined the Fireflies?" Ellie asked

"Yeah, your friend Marlene promised him hope" he said with a small bit of bitterness to his tone "That kept him busy for a while, but just like Tommy he eventually quit that too"

"I'm gonna guess that you didn't leave on kind terms" I stated

"I believe his last words to me were "I don't ever want to see your goddamned face again""

"But he's gonna help us?" Ellie sounded a little doubtful now. I didn't blame her.

"I suppose we're going to find out" Joel stated.

"Well, with or without his help, we'll get there" Ellie announced with confidence.

"That's a tad overconfident don't you think?" I pointed out

Ellie just looked me straight in the eye and said "I'm not giving this up" and walked on.

Our path took us further upriver, until we came across this massive man-made _thing_ that stretched across the river.

"Whoa" I breathed

"What's that?" Ellie asked with an equal amount of awe.

"That right there is a hydroelectric power plant" Joel answered

"A... hydra who?" Ellie was confused

"It... um..." Joel stopped to think of an explanation "It uses the river's movement and turns it into electricity"

"How's it do that?"

"Look, I know what it is. Doesn't mean I know how it does it" he shrugged.

"How are we gonna get across?" I asked, peering over the side at the artificial waterfall. My sight rested on a door. "Hold on" I quickly said, turning my shiv in the lock. My shiv held (being a sharpened piece of plastic had its perks) and the lock broke open. I went inside and found what looked like an unassuming handgun, except for the fact it was built like a one-handed sniper with its scope and ammo. Inscribed along its barrel were the words "El Diablo".

"Cool" I tossed it to Joel "You're gonna want this"

I went back outside, where I found a wheel. Turning it I realised that it lifted a small bridge for crossing. Unfortunately, it only raised half the bridge, the other half being controlled on the opposite side.

"Now what?" Ellie asked

Joel stowed his new gun away, then jumped into the water, returning with (surprise, surprise) a wooden pallet.

"Alright, Ellie..." he spoke

"I know" she interuppted "Step on the fucking pallet"

Joel carried her to the other side, where she manged to raise the bridge for me and Joel.

"Teamwork!" she smiled, raising a hand for a high-five. Both Joel and I gave her one. "Yeah"

Our path took us through what appeared to be an old campsite. Vaulting over a log, we came across a horrid sight: a grave. With a little child's teddy bear resting on it.

"That's too small of a grave" Joel sighed

A sudden thought seemed to come to Ellie "I forgot to leave that stupid robot on his grave"

Sam's toy robot. The action figure that he never got. I winced. Sam and Henry were still painful memories for us all. Memories too loud and with too much emotion.

"What should I do with it?" she asked me

"Ellie..." I started

"What?" she asked "I want to talk about it"

"No" was Joel's blunt reply.

"Why not?" Ellie insisted

"How many times do we need to go over this?" Joel snapped "Things happen. And we move on"

"But..."

"That's enough!"

"Alright. Sorry" Ellie sighed quietly.

"Hey" I spoke up, trying to ease some of the tension "Let's get to Tommy's"

So we moved on from the abandoned camp, moving through the forests. My stomach growled like the mating call of a some stupid whale.

"When was the last time we ate?" I asked

"Auggh, I'm so hungry!" Ellie wailed with comic melodrama.

"I know" Joel said "I am too"

"I'm totally shooting the next squirrel I see" Ellie announced

"Let's get past this place, then we can scrounge up some food" said Joel

"If I starve, you're responsible" the girl joked back

Our path led us to the main gates of the power plant, where I found an old knife and a roll of duct tape in a guard post, which I pocketed for later use.

I stared at the gates, "Are we going to cut through this?"

Joel made a quick lap around the clearing "Ain't no way around"

"So that's a yes then"

Joel and I tugged at the locks of the gates, when we heard the unmistakeable sound of a firearm safety switch going off. My head darted skywards, above the gates was a walkway with several riflemen aiming at us.

"Don't even think about reaching for your weapon" one of them, a woman, warned us "Tell the girl to drop hers. Now!"

I looked back to Ellie, who had managed to draw her handgun. Regardless, we were outnumbered "Ellie, do as she says"

Joel nodded in agreement. Ellie stared at the woman who issued the demand "Okay" she dropped it.

"Please tell me you're lost" the woman said.

"Look" Joel spoke up "We didn't know the place was occupied. We're just trying to make our way through"

"Through to where?"

"They're alright!" came a voice from behind the gate.

"You know these people?" the woman asked the speaker.

The gates opened. "I know him. He's my goddamn brother"


	12. Chapter 12

**Mi Casa es Vuestros Casa**

I'll be honest, I didn't see much of a resemblance. This Tommy guy had more of a blonde look as opposed to Joel's slate-grey. He was paler as well.

The two still embraced each other like family though.

The two took a moment to gaze at each other. "You got fucking old" Tommy smiled

"Easy" Joel chuckled back "It's gonna happen to you too"

The woman who threatened us marched out to meet us, her rifle in her hands.

"This is Maria" Tommy introduced her "Be nice to her, she sorta runs things around here"

"Ma'am" Joel said "Thanks for not blowing my head off"

The corners of Maria's mouth twitched, a supressed smile maybe "Would've been embarrasing" she said "Considering your my brother-in-law"

Wait, what?

Joel seemed just as surprised as I was, looking at Tommy as if he had just grown donkey ears or something.

"We all gotta gotta get wrangled up at some point" Tommy shrugged.

Maria turned to look at us "Ellie, right?" Ellie nodded "And I never caught your name"

"Kenneth" I nodded in greeting

"What brings you through here?" she asked us

"It's... kind of a long story" Ellie answered

"Why don't we bring'em inside?" Tommy suggested to his wife. Wow, that was weird to say. Wife. Wiiiiiife. Funny word.

Maria nodded in agreement "Yeah" She looked back to Ellie and I "You hungry?"

Our responses were almost instantaneous.

"Starving"

"Oh God yes"

We were led inside the gates, while Tommy and Maria gave us the rundown of the power plant. Apparently, they'd been trying to get it working again.

"We have electricity, Joel... had" Tommy said "We'll get it running again"

We stopped for a moment as Tommy was whisked away to help with a horse. Ellie was mesmerised by a brown and white one. Apparently, she'd learned to ride a horse back in Boston. You learn something new everyday it seems.

We went inside the complex, when Maria's radio crackled "Maria. We're in the control room. Steve's about to start it back up. Do you wanna come check it out?"

"I'd rather eat with the kids" she admitted to us.

"It's my turn anayway. I'll go" Tommy volunteered

"I'll come with you" Joel announced. He turned to us "Go with Maria and get some food in you"

"Joel?" Ellie seemed a little nervous to get split up. A harmless habit I guess.

"Hey" I tapped her shoulder "He'll be fine. Let's go, I'm starving"

Ellie eventually nodded and we followed Maria.

"I'm sending Tommy over. Stand by" Maria spoke into her radio.

She led us to some kind of cafeteria, where we sat around a table while Maria sent someone to rustle up some grub.

I looked at the meal placed before me. It was beef. Freshly cooked from the looks of it as well. Along with some sweetcorn. Needless to say, I wolfed it down with relish.

"How the hell you get food like this?" I said between mouthfuls.

"The city's designed to be self-sustaining. We have everything: crops, livestock, electricity"

"What about Infected?" Ellie asked

"We have guards, and an electric fence"

"Sounds like paradise" I only half-joked.

"Well, we have to make the most of it" Maria smiled. She leaned back in her chair "So what's your story?"

Ellie decided to tell her. How she met Joel, how she met me, everything in between. She decided to leave out the part where she was the sole chance for a cordyceps cure, but that was probably for the best. She did say we were looking for the Fireflies.

"We were hoping Tommy would help us there" I added.

"I see" she muttered "How's it like? Being with Joel? I've heard quite a lot about him from Tommy"

"He's a hardass" I put it bluntly "When I first met him I'm pretty sure he wanted to kill me"

"He's had it hard" Maria sighed.

"What do you mean?" Ellie asked.

Maria suddenly looked very uncormfortable "Not sure it's my place to tell"

"C'mon"

"Promise we won't tell" I promised. I meant it as well.

"Well..." Maria started "Tommy told me he lost his daughter, Sarah, during the outbreak. During the early days. It hit him hard, you know?"

I nodded, so did Ellie.

"And life was hard for them, Tommy and him..."

The radio's static ended our conversation. "We have bandits! They've broken the perimeter!"

Maria and Ellie drew their guns "Take cover" the older woman ordered us. So they did. I on the other hand ran to the wall and tore a firemans axe from its holding, and waited by the door.

A shotgun round destroyed the doorknob, and a man burst into the room. I swung my axe and got him in the gut, jamming my shiv into his neck as he fell forward. Another slammed into me after that, too close to swing the axe, rather choosing to headbutt him instead.

Mistake. Word of advice, never headbutt unless you have literally no other option, because odds are you'll fuck up and stun yourself, kind of like what I did.

The bandit recovered first, and stomped on my shin. I howled in pain. He just happened to get me in my gun-wound, you know, the one that Henry nicked me with. Hurt like a bitch.

He knocked me off balance, and I was on the floor. Now he was strangling me. So to hell with sportsmanship. I drove a thumb into his left eye.

Hey, I'm nothing if not pragmatic.

Needless to say, he released me in his pain, and I got my axe back. I swung and got him in the back of the neck. He was dead.

Gunshots sent me darting for the nearest cover. I lay there, nursing my aching leg, when the gunshots were silenced. The cavalry arrived.

"They're all dead!" I heard Tommy cry.

"Tommy?" came Maria's hesitant call.

"Maria!"

"I'm alright! Ellie's with me!"

"What about Kenneth?" Joel's voice. He did care.

I stuck up an arm "Right here!"

"That was too damn close" I heard Joel mutter.

I was taken away to some kind of med-bay for my leg, I had started limping again. The others had decided to go outside. The wait while the "doctor" for lack of a better term examined my leg and the hasty bandaging I had done with it was mind-numbing. Eventually she stopped staring and just gave me something for the pain.

"It's already healing" she explained "Just try not to get hit there again"

"No promises" I smiled as I left.

I had to ask around a bit, but eventually found tyhe way outside. I found Joel, and he grabbed me by the shoulder. "Come with me"

"Where?"

"Ellie's run off!"

Wait, what?


	13. Chapter 13

**Lost & Found**

It turns out it's much harder tor ride a horse than it looks. This five-legged stallion they gave me (went by the name of Philip) was an incredibly wilfull beast. Fortunately I was a fast learner, or we would've never have found Ellie. Well, I'm sure they would have been able to find her without me, but I was adamant about coming.

The trail led us into the woods, "She couldn't have gotten far. We'll find her. Don't worry" Tommy calls, "She usually pull these stunts?"

"Everyone needs some alone time" I say

"Nothing like this though" Joel said "I don't know what's going on"

Our trusty steeds took us along the remains of the highway and through dilapidated tunnels. But Ellie's tracks went off road, straight into the forest. Joel's horse jumped a fallen log, and immediately had to dodge a falling molotov.

"Bandits!" Tommy yelled

"No shit!" I snapped.

We took cover behind the husk of a pickup truck. "How many do you see?" Tommy asked Joel.

"Too goddamn many"

We split off. I snuck ahead up past some rocky slopes while Joel provided cover fire. Using some tape, I managed to tape a knife to the butt of my axe's handle. Needless to say, the bandits were too preoccupied by Joel and Tommy to notice me sneak up behind me. By the time they did, most of them were already axed and shanked. Joel killed the last man, and we were off again.

The trail eventually opened out onto farmland, or what was once farmland maybe. In the centre of the clearing was a large wooden house.

"That's our horse!" Tommy claimed, pointing at the horse tied up outside the front door. We dismounted, tied up our own horses and charged in. Joel and Tommy looked around on the lower floor while I sprinted for the stairs. I was looking in every room, calling Ellie with every opened door when I heard a "I'm in here!"

"Thank Christ" I breathed. I opened the door with a little less gusto this time, and I found Ellie sitting by the window, reading some kind of book.

"She's up here!" I called to the others.

"Is this all they had to worry about?" Ellie spoke. I'm guessing the book was actually a diary judging from what she was saying "Boys. Movies. Deciding which shirt goes with which skirt?"

"Bizarre"

"I know, right?" Ellie put the diary down, her face a mask of bitterness "Did you know?"

"Know what?"

"That Joel was gonna dump me off with Tommy?"

"What? Why would he do that?"

"Because he's an asshole" she spat.

Joel came in at this point. "Get up" he said "We're leaving. C'mon"

"And if I say no?" Ellie argued.

"Do you even realise what your life means?" Joel asked "Huh? Running off like that, putting yourself at risk... Pretty goddamn stupid"

"Well, I guess we're both disappointed with each other" Ellie retorted through gritted teeth.

"What do you want from me?"

"Admit that you wanted to get rid of me the whole time!"

Joel didn't speak and gave me a quick glance, "Tommy knows this area better than..."

"Fuck that" Ellie interuppted, jumping to her feet.

"Well, I'm sorry" Joel said without an ounce of sincerity "I trust him better than I trust myself"

"Stop with the bullshit" she snapped "What are you so afraid of? That I'm gonna end up like Sam? I can't get infected! I can look after myself"

"How many close calls have we had?"

"Joel, we've been doing fine" I cut in

"And now you'll do even better with Tommy!" Joel snapped, marching towards the door like the discussion was over.

"I'm not her, you know" Ellie muttered.

"Ellie wait..." I started. It was always a bad idea to dredge up a guy's past.

It was useless to stop her though, as Joel had heard her. "What?"

"Maria told us about Sarah, and I..."

"Ellie" Joel's entire demeanour had changed. What was irritation was now replaced with a cold, calm anger that made the hairs on my arms stand on end. Joel was terrifying when he wanted to be, and sometimes even when he didn't. "You are treading on some mighty thin ice here"

Ellie just stared back "I'm sorry about your daughter Joel, but I have lost people too"

"You have no idea what loss is" he growled

"Hey" I spoke up, my voice also having dropped into an angry baritone "That's uncalled for. We've all lost people"

"Not like I have"

"Kenneth lost his whole family!" Ellie shouted, tears in her eyes "Everyone that _I_ have ever cared about has either died or left me" She threw both her arms out at Joel and shoved him back "Everyone, fucking except for you! And you! So don't tell that I would be safer with someone else, because the truth is I would just be more scared!"

I took that moment to put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Ellie" she looked up into my eyes "I'm not going anywhere"

She threw her arms around my midsection and pulled me into a hug. I just held her there until she calmed down.

"You're right" Joel spoke, breaking the silence "You're not my daughter. And I sure as hell ain't your dad" My hand clenched into fists at his words. I suddenly had the urge to smack Joel upside the head with my axe "And we are going our separate ways"

Tommy barged in. "Get it together" he said "We have company"

Joel went to peek out the window "I got two walking in"

"There's more already inside" Tommy said

I released Ellie from my cooldown hug and brandished my axe "Good" I had a little anger to work off.

We waited as some of the bandits stalked upstairs to us. The two of them both died silently. Joel and I snuck down the stairs, Joel taking point, the old man tossing down a small smoke bomb. The three bandits were engulfed, coughing in the smoke. We charged. Joel shot one point-blank with his revolver, I shish-kebabed another in the chest with my axe. The third one recovered in time to witness his comrades fall, but against the two of us he stood no chance. He cracked a wooden plank against Joel's head but I was there to respond with a slightly sharper instrument. I got him in the back of the leg and he sank to one knee. Joel struck him with his own knee and the bandit was sent sprawling on his back as Joel's foot came down on his head. He didn't get back up after that.

"Alright" Joel spoke as if he wasn't caked in the arterial spray another man's blood (pretty badass, though he was still a bit of a dick) "The house is clear"

"Then let's go" I said.

We trudged back to base in silence, by the time we got back it was sundown. We could see the town from the cliff we stood on. It was so strange. There were electric lights, they were on. People were walking up and down streets at peace, they didn't have to worry about being ambushed. Houses stood in near perfect condition. It looked like another world. It looked like paradise.

"Kids'll be watching movies tonight" Tommy smiled.

"Where is this lab of theirs?" Joel asked.

"It's all the way out, the University of Eastern Colorado"

"Heh, go Big Horns" Joel smiled "Ellie, get off your horse, and give it back to Tommy"

Ellie looked at him with disbelief, I was equally surprised.

"I'm gonna hang on to this fella, as well as the one Kenneth's got" he said "If that's alright with you" He looked at Ellie to see that she still hadn't moved "Go on, don't make repeat myself" he said with a small smile.

"What are you doing?" Tommy voiced the question we were all thinking.

"Your wife kinda scares me" he only half-joked "I don't want her coming after me"

Ellie handed Tommy the reins of her horse before climbing up next to Joel "Sorry about stealing your horse"

Tommy took the reins without even looking at her, still trying to talk Joel out of his change of heart "Come back to town, let's discuss it at least"

"Eh, you know me. My minds all made up. Univeristy Eastern Colorado. Where do I find this lab?"

"It's in the science building. Looks like a giant mirror, you can't miss it"

"You take care of that wife of yours" Joel smiled

"There's a place for you here, you know"

"Don't worry" I said "We'll be back"

"You good?" Joel asked Ellie

"I'm good"

Joel bid his brother farewell, and we were away again.

At least we had horses, otherwise I would have spent the whole trip complaining about sore feet.


	14. Chapter 14

**The Worlds Most Boring Tour**

It took us about a week to reach the university. Joel and Ellie on one horse, me on another. Joel was trying to explain the rules of football as we trundled along.

She was taking a while to grasp the rules "Okay, let me see if I get it straight. If you mess up your fourth down, then you give the ball to the other team?"

"Right. It's called turnover"

"And if you clear the ten yards then you're back at... first down?"

"That's right"

"It's confusing"

"You just gotta play it a couple times" Joel chuckled "It'll all make sense"

"Or," I spoke up "You play a game of actual football"

Joel narrowed his eyes at me for the umpteenth time that day. We'd been having this friendly-sort of argument for a while now. You see I may have been born in the heart of eagle-land, but my dad came from some place called Scotland, so the rule of football kinda got drilled into my head by the time I was nine.

"It _is_ real football" Joel argued

"No it's not" I said in a sing-song voice (I was going for maximum irritation) "Football involves kicking around a ball with your feet. You don't have a ball, and you don't kick it anyway. May as well call it something like handegg" I chuckled a little at my own joke.

"Hmph. Handegg" the old man grumbled.

We eventually came to the gates of the university, with walls of brown brick and rusted iron, the place was silent though.

Joel dismounted, giving the reins to Ellie "Stay Callus" he commanded, before pausing to look up at Ellie "What kind of name is Callus anyway?"

"Not my fault you forgot to ask Tommy his name" Ellie shrugged

"Still. Callus?" I pressed the issue.

"Got a better name?" the girl asked

"Yeah. Any name" was my response "Like Sammy, or Jeff"

"Enough" Joel moaned, "Let's look around"

So we did. We explored the area, the "campus" as Joel called it, looking for this science building. Every now and then Joel would get on and off Callus to look inside a building or something.

"None of these buildings look like a mirror to me" I said

"We should keep heading to central grounds" Joel suggested "Should be able to see most of the campus from there"

We went a bit further when Joel got us to stop again. There was a big garage door with what looked like a mechanics inside "I want to look inside. Might find something"

"I'll stay with Callus"

"I hate that name" both Joel and I muttered in near unison.

Joel went inside and emerged with, I shit you not, a flamethrower! "Holy hell" I exclaimed "That looks pretty cool"

"We'll see how good it is when we actually find some trouble" Joel said as he clambered back onto the horse.

So travelled onwards upon the ever faithful Callus and Philip, leaping barriers and halfing time in general, when we eventually came across a building that was missing an entire section of wall, and the ceiling was high enough for the horses, so we all went inside.

"How many people you think are there?" Ellie asked "Fireflies, I mean"

"Reckon it takes quite a crew to run this operation" Joel theorised

"You think there'll be other people my age?"

"I doubt it Ellie" I answered "But it's possible"

We had to stop to open a gate. As we did though, both horses started to whinny in distress "Easy boy" I tried to placate Phillip, when we heard the sounds of Infected.

"Sounds like Infected" I said

"Stay with the horses" Joel ordered "I'll go check it out"

"Are you sure?" Ellie asked.

"Yes. We can't have them running off"

And so he stalked up a staircase and was gone. We waited for what felt like five when I finally decided to go as well. "Hold on to him for me" I handed Phillip's reins to Ellie.

"What?"

"He might need help" I argued.

I followed him up into the darkness, eyes and ears open. I had to step over an Infected corpse, probably Joel's work, when I heard the sound of a struggle. Up ahead of me I saw Joel strangling a Runner, but he was doing a hasty job. The Runner was making too much noise, and another had just come around the corner. It stared at him with bloodshot eyes before charging, wailing like a dying beast. I shot up and swung, my axe hacking into the side of it's head. Good news: that Runner was dead, bad news: every other Runner on the floor had probably heard it, and they did. Damn.

A dozen Runners came running at us. "Move!" I heard Joel shout before shouldering me aside. He let the Runners approach before unleashing the power of the newly aquired flamethrower, a steady stream of fire bursting from its barrel. I had heard that fire was a natural weakness of the cordyceps but damn, these things went up like dry paper. Within the space of ten seconds we had a hallway of extra-crispy bodies.

I patted Joel on the shoulder "That was awesome"

He turned to look at me with a look of mild annoyance "I told you to stay with the horses"

"I thought you'd need help"

The old man sighed a little "I appreciate it, but listen to me next time. If you don't, then Ellie's definitely not gonna"

I nodded in understanding and we headed back down. We found a power box for the next gate, but it wasn't working "No juice" Joel stated

"This cable might lead somewhere" I suggested, pointing to a yellow cord that lead back upstairs.

"Get the horses" Joel instructed me "We'll meet back here. I'll go get the power working"

"You sure?"

Joel smiled "I'll be fine" He patted me on the shoulder and left. I ran back to Ellie and the horses, and brought them to the gate.

"Hey I was thinking..." Ellie spoke "I would've wanted to be an astronaut"

I had to suppress my laughter "An astronaut?"

"Yeah" she smiled "Can you imagine being up there all by yourself?"

"Sounds boring"

"Don't ruin it" she said with a small smile "Would've been cool I'm saying. What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, what would you have done? If the world hadn't gone to shit I mean"

I thought for a moment before answering "You ever read about zoos?"

"What, the place with all the animals, like lions and tigers and shit?"

"Yeah. I'd think if the world wasn't fucked, I'd like to work at one of those places. Feeding animals, looking after them, you know?"

Ellie nodded. There was a hum as the power box came back on, followed by the thuds of Joel's footsteps down the stairs.

"Hey Joel" Ellie called as the man hit the switch to open the door "What'd you want to be when you were a kid?"

"Uh..." Joel scratched his beard as he climbed back onto Callus's back "Well, when I was a kid I used to want to be... a singer"

We both sniggered a little "Shut up" Ellie laughed

"I'm serious"

"Sing something" she asked

"No" was his blunt reply

"Promise we won't laugh" I offered

"I don't think so" the man was adamant

"Please" Ellie

The man grumbled something unintelligible and urged the horse to move a little faster, jumping another barrier into what seemed like the "central grounds" that Joel was talking about. Or maybe it was just a really big courtyard. On the other side of the courtyard, there was a overturned truck swarmed with, surprisingly, monkeys. About a half-dozen of them. They all ran away when we got close though. Joel searched the truck (a few minutes of my life I'll never get back, seeing as it was empty) and we moved on.

"Hey look!" Ellie called, pointing at the passing graffiti "Fireflies"

She was right. Sprayed onto the side of the building was the Fireflies's logo. "I see it" Joel said

"This is good" Ellie smiled "First sign of Fireflies"

"Let's keep hoping" I added.

We came across another locked gate in our way. Ellie hit the switch but, predictably, nothing happened. "Well shit" said I.

"Generator's on the other side" Joel noted. He looked around before finding a blocked door. Squeezing through the narrow gap "Now, you two..."

"Watch the horses" Ellie finished "Why don't you watch the horses for a change?"

"Ellie" I chided her.

"Sorry. I'm just getting antsy"

Joel was gone, and so we were left to our own devices for a while. I decided to try and sharpen my axe, while Ellie pulled a comic from her bag and started reading.

"Why do you read so much?" I finally asked her.

She waited a bit before answering "I dunno. When I was little, I got transported between QZs a lot so, I read to pass the time. I had a walkman too, but the thing broke"

Time passed. We talked about comics and books, what were Ellie favourites, whether or not I'd ever heard of them, when it ocurred to me "Joel should've been back by now"

"Yeah" Ellie agreed

"Stay with the horses" I told her, "I'm gonna go look for him"

Turns out I didn't have to, because at that point a door on the other side of the gate burst open, and lo and behold there was Joel, his clothes stained with dry blood and soot.

"Where the hell have you been?" I called

"Are you okay?" Ellie asked him

"Ran into some Infected. I'm fine" Joel answered

More? I was starting to have doubts about whether or not people were actually here.

Joel managed to hook a generator up to the gate, getting it open. Then we were moving again.

"What kind of Infected were they?" I asked Joel

"Some Clickers. And a Bloater"

A massive chill just went down my back. Bloaters were the worst kind of Infected. For the uneducated among us, Bloaters are the fourth and most powerful type of Infected. They're covered in a thick layer of hardened fungus, which kind of acts like kevlar, makes them hard to kill, and they're much, _much_ stronger than any other kind, so you couldn't just crack them with an axe, not without getting your face torn open anyway. They were the stuff of my nightmares, I always made an effort to avoid them. Fortunately, they were blind like Clickers, so they didn't just attack on sight. But still, your best bet, if you have no choice, kill it with fire. Burns through the armour like it's nothing. Or, just to stress my point, stay the hell away.

"Think they were Fireflies?" Ellie asked

"No... No. I don't think so" was Joel's reply. Seems to me he's thinking what I'm thinking.

"Why would they have Infected so close to the lab?" Ellie pressed the question

"Bill used them as a form of defense. Maybe they're doing the same" he reasoned

I had no idea who this Bill was, but Ellie nodded like she understood "Yeah. I could see that"

We came to the science building, mving through the tents that were set up. "No guards. No nothing" I observed

"Yeah... I'd expect to see someone by now" Joel added "Let's get inside"

We tried the main doors, but they were locked from the inside, so we went to go find a side-door.

"Have you ever been to one of these?" Ellie asked Joel.

"What? A university?"

"Yeah"

Joel chuckled a little "No. Not as a student at least"

"Why not?" I asked

"I... I had Sarah when I was pretty young"

I was a little stunned. The fact he was talking about Sarah was progress in itself.

"Were you married?" Ellie asked

"For a while"

"What happened?" I questioned

Joel went very quiet "Okay"

"Too much?"

"Too much"

So we eventually found an entrance, in a broken section of wall. Unfortunately, it was a floor up.

"How we gonna get up there?" Ellie asked

"Through the gates" I stated, only to find they were rusted shut. Because of course they were!

Joel started dragging a dumpster over, only for him to stumble and watch it tumble down the slope through the gates, breaking them open.

"That'll work" Ellie laughed

We got the dumpster over to the side of the building, managing to make a risky, but useable steps out of it and a truck to get to the hole. Joel got up first, me following, and together we pulled Ellie up.

The building was quiet. Too quiet. We went about searching the rooms "Yoohoo! Fireflies! Cure for mankind over here! Anyone?" Ellie was calling

"Kee your voice down" I urged "At least until we find something"

Ellie nodded and we kept searching. Joel joined back up with us and we found a collection of boxed papers, clipboards and folders. Sciency shit.

Joel picked up and studied a clipboard "Does it say anything?" Ellie asked

"Nothing here but medical mumbo-jumbo" he replied

"This shit doesn't even make sense" I exclaimed "I mean, what the hell is a limbic system?"

Joel shrugged "No idea"

Ellie stared at the boxes confused "I don't get it. It looks like they all just packed up and left"

A crash for the upper floor made us all jump.

"Maybe not all of them"


	15. Chapter 15

**From Meh to Worse**

"Maybe not all of them"

We stalked upstairs in search of the culprit of the noise, sneaking through doorways, keeping our ears open and our weapons ready for anything.

"There are no bodies" Ellie noted, "That's good, right?"

"If we find out where went" Joel answered

"You sir" I joked "Are a ray of sunshine"

What can I say, times like these you need to try and keep a positive outlook. I mean nothing bad was going to happen, right?

We searched the floor for signs of anything alive, and came up with nothing. But there was a crash as a spotlight fell to the floor.

"Shit!" Ellie exclaimed

"You do that Joel?" I asked

"No"

"Well, shit" The tension was killing me. My hands trembled ever so slightly as we came up to the room and the end of the corridor. What certainly wasn't helping was the x-ray photo of a Stalker's skull that I had found stapled to the wall. That was some body horror that'll stay in my dreams for a long time.

Joel put his hand on the door-handle, the noises were coming from the next room. "Ready?" he whispered

We nodded.

Joel slowly opened the door... to find monkeys tearing the place apart. The nearest one, which happened to be rummaging in the trash, looked up and saw us and shrieked with alarm. Within seconds all the monkeys had ran away.

"Well," Joel seemed a little lost for words "At least it ain't Clickers"

I burst into laughter. It admittedly wasn't that funny, but I had a lot of stress to laugh off, and laughter was a very good way to diffuse tension. Ellie, surprisingly, was the one that kept a scowl upon her face. I guess she was just tired of searching.

"Well, maybe in all that research they turned in fucking monkeys" she muttered.

I smiled at her comment, no matter how bitter it sounded. We searched the lab, where I found one of those handheld tape recorders. Apparently, the scientists had decided to move to another site for some reason or other, and this one guy, the guy with the recorder, had been told to kill off the lab rats, or lab monkeys or... whatever. Thing was, he didn't want to kill them, so he let them loose when everyone was gone, and one of the buggers bit him. Problem was, the monkeys had been given some kind of cordyceps drug for them to test on, or at least that's what I figured, given that the recording ended with the guy having a panic attack of sorts. Anyway, the recording was over so I threw the damn thing away and we moved on.

We came to a door. Joel tried to open it, but it was held shut with something on the other side.

"This is the last room" Joel said

"Could probably get it open if we push together" I offered.

"Wait guys" Ellie spoke "What if it's locked for a reason?"

She had a point, so I banged my fist against the door a couple of times. The noise was startlingly loud.

"The hell you doing?" Joel demanded.

"If there's an Infected guy in there, he'll try and get at us" I reasoned. There was no response on the other side "Coast's clear"

We got the door open eventually, knocking away the desk that had it barred shut. We emerged into what seemed like another science lab. Sitting on an office chair was a Firefly's corpse. A massive hole blown into the side of his decomposing skull. Suicide. I gritted my teeth as I looked. He was probably the one that got infected from the monkey bite. I can understand wanting to die rather than turn, but it was still a pet hate.

In the dead man's hand was another recorder. Joel picked it up and let it play:

 _"If you're looking for the Fireflies, they've all left..."_

"Yeah, no shit" muttered Ellie

 _"...I'm dead. Or I will be soon. Got me some time to reflect..."_ Joel cursed something and started fast-forwarding through the recording, making the man's deathbed confessions morbidly amusing _"...been years that felt like we were... fucking thing was a giant waste of ti-... not gonna do this anymore..."_

"That guy can talk, can't he?" I chuckled at the impatient look on Joel's face.

"Come on" he muttered as he hit fast-foward again.

 _"... looking for the others, they've all returned to Saint Mary's Hospital in Salt Lake City. You'll find them there, still trying to save the world. Heh, hood luck with that"_ The recording ended after that.

"Do you know where that is?" Ellie asked Joel.

"I know the city" he replied

"How far?" I asked

"It ain't close" he admitted "I mean on horseback it's..." He stopped talking and stared out of the window.

"What is it?" I asked, following his gaze. I saw what he was looking at. On the other side of the building there were flashlights shining around. One of them turned to shine at us.

"Fireflies?" Ellie guessed.

I'll admit if it wasn't for Joel's reflexes that kid would've been killed. Quick as a viper Joel grabbed Ellie and pulled her to the floor just as bullets started flying at us.

"Shit!" I yelled

We ran for the door. "Who the fuck are these guys?" Ellie wondered aloud.

"A bunch of assholes" I suggested with a smirk. She returned the gesture with a small grin, but then her face hardened as it does in a life-threatening situation.

"I don't matter" Joel spoke "We know where to go so let's get the hell outta here"

"Right behind you man" I said.

We kept running, when a couple of guys came around the corner and attacked us. One was armed with a plank, the other a gun. Stupidly, I charged them, knocking plank-man aside and spearing the gunman with the pointy end of my axe handle, twisting it between his ribs. The little blade broke off as I wrenched my weapon free but that wasn't that big of a deal considering I just got clubbed with a 2x4. He didn't hit me again though, Joel put a bullet in his thick head.

"You couldn't have done that sooner?" I asked, rubbing my sore head.

"Come on" he ordered "Get to cover"

So we took cover as more men spilled out into the hallway. Joel drew his hunting rifle and started taking shots, taking a few of them down. One man burst from the room beside us, vaulting through a broken window. Ellie stabbed him in the leg, and with a swing I sent him flying back through the window, choking on his own blood from the cut in his neck.

We ran onwards, back to the front doors of the complex.

Then everything went wrong.

We were running along the balcony when a door burst open and one of the fuckers collided with Joel. They hit the glass railing and they both went over. The sound that Joel made when he hit the ground... Jesus, it would stay with you. He didn't die, the other guy did though. Joel had however, landed flat on his back, and on a bit of rebar, which had gone straight through his gut.

"Shit!" I cried. This was becoming somewhat of a habit of mine.

"Joel, we're coming!" Ellie yelled. She grabbed a hold of some cables and managed to rappel down to him. I tried to do the same but I was, naturally, a tad heavier than the girl and the cables gave way, so I landed flat on my ass. I'd come to laugh about that part later, but there were more pressing matters at hand.

"What do we do?" Ellie asked Joel

"Move" he grunted

"What?"

"Move!" he yelled, shoving her aside as two men came through the doors. He downed one with his revolver and I got the other one round the neck. He thrashed and squirmed in my killer embrace but I was bulkier than him and I didn't stop squeezing until I felt the crunch of his windpipe collapsing. I dropped him like a ragdoll. I returned to Joel's side "We're gonna have to pull you up" I told him. He nodded. "Ellie, get his arm" I grabbed the other "This'll hurt a lot"

We pulled, Joel giving an involuntary cry of agony as his body was pulled off the spiked metal. If I was honest I expected more screaming, but Joel was a hardass. There was still too much blood though.

"We need to move" I ordered, "Ellie, cover us!" I moved to put Joel's arm around me to support him, but he brushed me off.

"Just get to the horses" he said through gritted teeth.

He was able to walk okay, so I let him be, and we started moving, Ellie taking the lead. "Can you handle the window?" she asked

"Yeah" the man grunted.

Ellie and I climbed through first, and I held my arms out as Joel came tumbling over. I didn't care what the old man said, I knew he wasn't going anywhere without help. There was a bright-red trail wherever he went. I dragged him behind a desk, due to another thug coming through the door, shotgun in hand.

He fired a shot and missed "I see you" he growled

"Okay" Ellie whispered "I'm gonna go flank this asshole"

I nodded, and she snuck away. The man fired another shot, but he didn't seem to notice Ellie. "Those were my friends you killed, asshole"

"Fuck you!" I shouted at him, trying to keep his attention on me and Joel. He fired again, but his aim was shit, or I was just too quick, as my head was back behind cover (intact I may add) and the desk had lost another chunk of chipboard.

"Come on out" the gunner spoke "You want to do this the hard way?"

"Waiting on you, shithead" I retorted.

Ellie took the moment to shoot at him, catching him in the shoulder "You little bitch!" he cried, but he was dead before he could do much else. I had charged at him and struck him with my axe. It went about halfway into his head, and I couldn't get it back out.

"Shit" I hissed. I decided to leave it as Joel was struggling to get back up.

Ellie was at his side first. "I'm okay" Joel complained as she got him to his feet.

"You're not okay Joel!" she snapped "Now come on!"

We got moving again. I armed myself with a length of rebar I found lying on the floor. We moved out the room and headed down the hall towards the main doors.

"Come on, Joel" I urged him to move faster "You're doing great"

Joel stumbled and hit a chest of drawers. I dragged him to his feet "Lean on me" I told me.

He pushed me away "No"

I was getting fed up with him now "Well can you walk?"

"Yes"

"Then fucking walk!"

We made it to the main hall, the exit was just a few yards away. Joel fell to his knees again. "Joel!" Ellie cried in alarm

"Behind you" Joel called back.

He was right, men were barreling down the stairway towards us. Joel raised his gun, but was too weak to fire and fell over again. Ellie was more successful, killing one of the men before she ran out of ammo. The second man came running with a baseball bat as she fumbled for her second magazine, but I intercepted the bastard with my rebar. Within a couple blows his face had caved in and he was dead.

I ran back to Joel, getting him to his feet, he was too weak to even protest now. "Ellie, help me!" I shouted. She came over and took his other arm, and we took him to the exit.

"I swear to God," Ellie panted "If we get you out of this, you're so gonna sing for us"

Joel chuckled "You wish" before his face scrunched back into a look of sheer, yet supressed agony. I wasn't liking his chances, the man was still losing blood, and a lot of it at that.

"Ellie get the door" I ordered. She did, and I carried Joel outside. There was a man trying to steal our horses, Ellie gunned him down before he had a chance to blink. Joel managed to clamber onto Callus with some support, Ellie joining him. I slapped Callus's flank and they went off at a gallop, Phillip and I close behind.

I don't know how far we went, but when the horses slowed the university was long gone.

Ellie looked behind us to see "I think we're safe now"

I looked over at them, and to my horror I realised Joel was slipping "He's gonna fall!" I warned her, but by the time she reacted Joel had fallen from the horse, hitting the dirt with a thud and pained grunt.

He wasn't moving.

"Shit" I pulled Phillip to a stop and dismounted, Ellie doing the same. We tried to stir Joel, but he wouldn't respond, he wouldn't open his eyes.

"What do we do?" Ellie asked me, her eyes glistening with tears.

Shit, she was looking to me for solutions? I had never had to treat an injury this bad before. I'd never had to do anything like this before!

"I..."

"Kenneth! What do we have to do?"

What _could_ we do?


	16. Chapter 16

**Supply Run**

At this point I was ready to believe in the power of Jesus Christ or any other godly being, because we had managed to get Joel back on a horse and carry him inside a mall of sorts _and_ he was still alive.

I was kneeling by Joel's side, trying to convince myself that he would survive, while Ellie was off rummaging in nearby drawers for anything to treat Joel's wound. I heard her panicked breathing as she came back, with a roll of duct tape.

"Really?"

"It was all I could find" she claimed.

I grunted "It'll have to do. Help me with him" We rolled him onto his side. I draped one of Ellie's old t-shirts onto the injury to try and absorb the blood, "Hold that there" I told her as I applied the tape.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Ellie asked.

"I don't know!" I snapped, before softening at the look in Ellie's eyes "I don't know. The tape and that will buy us some time but we need to find something to stitch him up, otherwise..." I couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence. I was weird, Joel was an asshole when we met, and something told me he was still not completely trusting of me, but at that moment it felt like I was losing my family all over again. I wiped away some tears with a blood-soaked sleeve. "He should be safe here, but we need to search this place, find some first aid"

"Okay" she nodded. She put her hand on Joel's head "Be back soon, okay" She stared up at the horses "Boys, look after him" We got to the shop's (the one we were hiding in) security door, lifted it, and soon we were in the main part of the shopping mall. Ellie locked the door down, and we were off.

"Where the fuck do we go?" Ellie asked

"Uh..." I stammered before pointing at the stairs "Up there maybe?"

Ellie nodded. We climbed to the first floor, where we managed to find a pharmacy, ducking under the security door and starting to search.

"Find anything?" I asked Ellie, who was on the other side of the shop.

"Maybe" she said "Just a sec... hold on" before grunting in exasperation "Who just takes the pills and leaves the bottle? Who does that?"

"Assholes?" I suggested, trying to crack a smile. I failed.

"How about you?" she asked me.

"Nothing" I said, searching a box only to find it empty. I threw it across the room with a "Fuck!" before taking a few seconds to recompose myself.

"You tried behind the counter?" Ellie suggested. I vaulted the counter to the other side, searching all the drawers and cupboards, only to find a pair of scissors. I pocketed them for later. "No meds" I called back.

"Shit"

Ellie tried the door to the storeroom, but it was locked. What's worse was that we could literally see a first aid kit sitting through there.

"We're gonna need some kind of key" I told her.

"Where do we find that?"

I found a note on the floor. It was talking about the pharmacist. "Maybe this guy has a key. Says here he was locked in one of stores next door after he went crazy"

"Infected?" she wondered

"Could be"

I stuffed the note into my back pocket and we left to find the store. Ellie twisted the combination into the lock and pulled the door open. Fungal spores exploded out at us, nearly infecting me on the spot.

"Jesus!" I exclaimed

"Definitely infected" Ellie said

"I can't go in there" I told her. I didn't have a gas-mask. If I were to walk in there I'd be signing my own death warrant.

"It's okay" Ellie assured me "I'm immune, remember? I won't go too far" and she strolled into the foggy cloud of death. "If you're going to jump out at me, go ahead and fucking do it!" she called out.

"Ellie" I hissed. I wasn't finding her funny at that moment. I heard her foodsteps running around the shop until "Gah, yuck!"

"What is it?"

"I found the pharmacist!" was her reply "He's grown into the wall"

I grimaced a lttle. Cordyceps was like that. If it didn't turn you into a running screaming monster with a bad case of the munchies, it would kill you stone dead, and turn your corpse into a little fungal fun factory of spores. Fun times.

"Found the key!" she called before yelling out in alarm.

"Ellie, what happened?" I called to her, making no attempt to hide my panicked concern.

"A part of him just fell off, I'm fine!"

"Oh, thank God" I sighed with relief. My senses went int overdrive when I heard a noise. "Shit" I muttered, before sneaking away from the door. A Clicker had just come round the corner. Its head snapped in my direction, it must have heard me (although it hadn't let off it's attack-screech-thing). Ellie snuck out behind it and with a leap, stabbed it in the back of the neck with her switchblade. It fell over dead and she came back to my side.

"Let's try to keep the splitting up to a minimum" I suggested, trying to keep my voice down.

"Okay"

We returned to the pharmacy and got the storeroom open, only to find the first aid kit completely empty. Ellie cursed and kicked it across the room. "Hey" I spoke softly, putting a hand on her shoulder "We'll find something"

She looked up at me, her eyes torn and full of panic "I can't lose anyone else"

"You won't. Not today" I promised. I looked over and shoulder and out the window and saw, to my immense surprise, a military helicopter. It must have crashed through the roof. It sat on a precarious pile of rubble, but the most important part was the first aid symbol painted onto its door. "Ellie" I pointed.

"That's gotta have something" she said, hope creeping back into her voice. She vaulted the window and I followed.

"Hang in there old man" I muttered while Ellie was out of earshot, making a silent plea that Joel would live another day. We had to make an elaborate way there as the ground had fallen away in some places and rubble was blocking others. We cut through a beauty salon, where we came across a soldier's corpse. A corpse who just so happened to have a first aid kit on hand.

"No sutures" Ellie noted as she rummaged through its contents, taking away a roll of gauze for later. I read the man's notepad. The chopper was carrying an infected patient who turned on them. The crashed killed the Infected, but one of the survivors was bitten and executed. Whether this corpse was the victim or the executioner I couldn't say. So we moved on, heading back down the stairs.

"How the hell we getting up there?" Ellie asked

"Working on it" I said. I took the easy route, through the military's security gate and up the escalator. Naturally though there was no power running to the gate, so we had to take a detour into the dark hallways of maintenence. We were halfway down the hallway when a fucking cat leaped out of the boxes and scared us shitless. Ellie's vocabulary was quite colourful after that. The power lines we were following led us through some double doors, but something was stopping them from opening.

"Looks like we taking an even longer way" I grumbled.

So we pressed on down a corridor that said LOADING DOCK on the walls. The way was flooded, and we were soon up to our waists in water.

"God, this is freezing" Ellie exclaimed

"Suck it up" I smiled, trying to keep the situation light. Admittedly that was becoming harder to do. The further we waded, the darker it got, the only lights coming from our own flashlights. I could already feel my heart racing, my breathing faster, panic settling.

"Let's hurry this up" I said, pushing onwards down the darkening passage. There was a crash as something went scrambling in the vents above us.

It was that fucking cat again!

"Are you trying to kill me?" Ellie yelled out at the feline menace. No response, which was probably for the best. If the cat started to talk I would have high-tailed it out of there, Joel's condition or no. That thought made me smile, taking my mind off the surrounding darkness for the briefest of moments.

We emerged into a large loading bay, where a bunch of half-submerged trucks awaited us. Ellie and I waded through the room, eventually climbing to a drier path where we found a door to the next room. We tried opening it, to no avail.

"Locked" Ellie noted

"Is there any unlocked door in this shithole?" I wondered aloud.

"Come on" Ellie beckoned, as we went searching for a solution. I saw a generator on the other side of room, "Let's go get that working" I said as we walked. Ellie got a hold of the chain and revved, but nothing happened. "What the hell?"

I opened the tank "No fuel" I explained, Ellie left for a brief moment, coming back with a small gasoline container. "It's empty" she said "But maybe we can find some" I nodded and we turned to search the room, when I saw something dart between the trucks.

I recognised the chattering noises almost immediately.

"Shit. Stalkers"


	17. Chapter 17

**Endure & Survive**

I could count two Stalkers. I drew my shiv and scissors with as little noise as I could. Ellie raised her gun to fire but I lowered the barrel with the back of my hand "Wait" I whispered.

As I suspected, us standing in the open got the Stalkers feeling confident, and they burst from their cover and charged. Ellie opened fire, downing one as the second pounced on her, smacking her with its flailing arms. I was on that bitch before it had time to swing again, and my shiv went through its neck like warm butter. It fell to the floor dead, but the noises persisted. There were more incoming.

Two others came running, but Ellie had recovered from her blunt force trauma and opened fire the moment their eyes glowed in our flashlights. They both died before getting anywhere close to us.

"You're getting better with that thing" I noted

"Thanks" She smiled "So... is that it?"

I strained to listen. Silence. "Yeah, sounds like it"

"Okay, let's find some gas"

Our search took us throughout the loading bay, we searched the abandoned vehicles, siphoning the fuel from their tanks, or well Ellie was while kept a lookout. "Right, how do I do this?" she asked. holding the container and a short rubber hose.

"Uh, inhale" I suggested.

So she did, and promptly started gagging and spewing gasoline. "Ugh, that's nasty!"

"Don't drink it, idiot!"

"You wanna do this?" she asked as the fuel started filling the can.

"No please" I snarked "By all means, continue to poison yourself"

"Fuck you" she said goodnaturedly. She stopped filling it up and extracted the hose. "That should do it"

We headed back to the generator, where Ellie added the fuel, then I revved it into life. Suddenly, a pair of Stalkers came charging towards us. I only had enough time to yell "Shit!" before a cable fell from the rafters, electrifying the water and frying our attackers. The pair of us stood there in horrified fascination as we watched the Infected twitch and spasm from the hundreds of volts that were currently coursing through them, before falling into spazzing heaps on the soaked floor.

"Note to self" Ellie was the first to break the silence "Don't touch the water"

"Words to live by" I agreed.

What ocurred next was the world's most dangerous childhood game ever: Don't Touch the Ground. Ellie and I climbed up into the rafters, using the ventilation shafts as walkways as we moved across the bay. Let me tell you, it wasn't easy. The vents were about as stable as San Andreas and creaked and groaned with every step we took. Eventually, the rafters stopped, and we had to climb down onto non-electrified floors.

"Now what?" Ellie wondered.

We stood there for a moment, pondering a possible way to the door without getting fried when I noticed a pair of garage doors. And not to brag, but a glorious idea came to my mind at that point.

"Lightbulb!" I exclaimed before opening the doors.

"What are you doing?" Ellie asked

"Making a path" I explained, using crates and boxes to make a makeshift staircase. I also had the foresight to pile some up to keep the door wedged open. After a quick prayer to whatever deity was listening I jumped onto the raised door. It took my weight.

"Yes!" I fistpumped

"Alright!" Ellie grinned "I'll be right up"

She followed me up as I made my way back into the rafters, before climbing down to the exit. Ellie landed beside me and caught me in a hug.

"That was brilliant" she said.

"I have my moments" I shrugged "Let's go"

We stepped through the doors into some sort of pet supply store, and straight into a group of Infected.

"Shit" I hissed. Ellie shushed me, before picking up a brick in her hand. She tossed it, the brick making a loud crack as it hit the ground. The sound startled a nearby Clicker, who came to investigate, giving me the perfect opportunity to shank it in the jugular, meanwhile Ellie pounced on a Runner not far off, killing it before it had time to scream. Unfortunately, the sounds had still alerted another Runner, who woke another Clicker and Runner, and the three came charging all at once. A Runner attacked Ellie, who managed to withstand its blows and slash it to death, meanwhile I killed the second Runner by forcing my scissors through its eye. The Clicker had unfortuantely set it "eyes" on Ellie though, and had started chasing her. It would be far too strong for her to kill on her own, so I yelled "Oi, fucktard!" it turned, distracted by the new noise, and I hit it in the face with a well aimed bottle, stunning it long enough for me to knock it straight through the store window. The lacerations it suffered from the broken glass had it immobilised so I was able to leisurely squat down and stab it in the neck with my shiv.

I looked up to find Ellie, she was wrapping a bit of alcohol-soaked gauze around a cut the Runner had given her before nodding at me, signifying she was ready to go. She followed me out the window back into the main section of the mall. "Here we go again" she said.

We went to open the military's gate to the escalator, but had to scramble when a duo of Clickers came running, alerted by the noise. Fortunately, Infected didn't search in organised patterns, so we were able to sneak past them and kill them when they were separated.

"Okay then" I spoke, releasing a breath I didn't even know I was holding, "Let's get to that chopper before anything else happens"

"Agreed" We came to the gate "This thing better fucking work" Ellie grumbled. It did. "Fuck yeah"

We searched a makeshift campsite, finding a tape recorder. Listening to it (because I'm a naturally curious person) I learned there were at least two other survivors from the chopper crash, aside from the one that got capped in the beauty salon. One of the guys was suffering from a "fever" or at least that's what the person on the tape called it. Decided I'm gonna keep an eye out, see if I can find any more of these things lying around. Who knows, I might learn something.

Anyway, we made it to the chopper, but the only way on was to climb along a bridge of window panes that were flattened out in the crash.

"That won't take my weight" I announced dejectedly.

"I can make it" Ellie said, she only sounded half-sure. She clambered onto the glass, spiderweb cracks already appearing at her feet. She mumbled something under her breath as she walked along, before stopping. "I'm gonna have to jump!" she said.

"What?" I cried. That was above my limit "Ellie, come back! We'll find another way"

"No choice" she argued, before leaping through the helicopter's open door. There was a thud as she landed, then the whole fucking chopper started to move!

"Ellie!" I cried out in panic as the helicopter screeched and lurched from its bed of rubble. It didn't completely fall though, and after five seconds of excruciating silence I heard a "I'm fine! I'm okay!"

I sighed with relief "Well I'm not!" I called back "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"But I didn't!" she joked. A few more seconds went by, "Hey! I see the the first aid box!"

"Great! Grab it and get outta there, that thing looks like it's going to fall any second now!"

There was a cry of jubilation as I heard her yell "It's got the stuff! It's got the stuff!"

"Yes!" I yelled with joy, "Let's go!". She leaped from the other side of the chopper, and I raced down the way we came to meet back up with her.

Then I heard gunshots. Ellie! I ran faster, climbing staircases three steps at a time to where I thought I saw her land. I had to duck out of sight when I heard voices though.

"Why are we here?" one voice, gruff and manly, demanded "Who gives a fuck about an old man and his kids?"

Shit, these were the people from the university. They must have tracked us here for payback or something.

"The sooner we find them the sooner we get outta here" another voice said "Make sure this area's clear"

They spread out, one of them coming around the corner straight into me. I snapped his neck before he could alert his comrades. I also nicked his machete for good measure.

I turned the corner as I saw the two other men walk into different stores, the one I could see walked into a newsagents, only for a small shape to leap onto his back and kill him. Ellie!

I scurried as quickly and as quietly as I could to her side, pausing only to execute that other guy as I passed. Seeing that the coast was clear, I sprinted to the store, hurdled the window without losing speed and caught Ellie into a tight embrace "Don't ever fucking scare me like that" I panted.

She squirmed free, her smile broader than mine, "Hey, it's alright. I'm fine. I can take care of myself"

"I know that" I said "But I still worry, alright" I hugged her again before getting right back to business "Come on, let's get to Joel before these assholes do"

Ellie handed me a bow that she had managed to find "You know how to use this?"

I took it, but slung it round my shoulder, packing the arrows she had collected into the side of my backpack. "I can learn" was my reply. In truth, archery was the only art of ranged combat that I didn't completely suck ass at, but I still wasn't good enough to consider myself capable of pegging a shot in a firefight.

"Learn fast" Ellie said, and we moved on. "These guys want a fight, we'll fucking give them one"

"Amen to that" I smiled.

We had to creep through the ventilation, to make our way undetected. Ellie fit no problem, I on the other hand was moving a bit less gracefully, but at least I was out of sight and (hopefully) unheard.

"Alright, here's the plan" I said. "We get to Joel, we stitch him up and then we get the hell out of here"

"And we kill any fucker in our way?" Ellie asked

"And we'll kill any fucker in our way"

We crept around, got lost for a bit (much to my chagrin), found our way again and found the final survivor of the chopper crash. Crawled away to die in the air ducts. Hell of a way to go. He had another recorder, mostly talking about how he was bleeding to death, how paranoia had settled amongst him and hs mates, and about how he killed a fellow officer in his own paranoid delusion. Jesus.

We emerged onto the rafters of a sports supply store "Have we checked in here?" I heard a voice below us ask.

"Man, fuck these guys" Ellie whispered.

"Hey look" I nudged her, pointing down to the ground. Unbeknownst to the guys searching, there was a group of about three or four Clickers hiding at the very back of the store.

"Lightbulb?" Ellie asked.

"Lightbulb" I confirmed with a shit-eating grin "You have a brick? Bottle?"

She smiled and handed me a bottle. I dropped it down onto the floor with a completely sarcastic "Oops" and the noise woke the Clickers. Then chaos ensued. The Clickers awoke and attacked the two men. To give them credit one of them did manage to shoot one before he was mauled to death by the others, his friend didn't manage to raise his gun in time. The Clickers couldn't find us, so Ellie managed to assemble a small nail bomb together from the stuff she had found (Joel had obviously been teaching her well) and dropped it down as well. The Clickers flocked to the strange hissing noise, and two were shredded by the shrapnel. The last one was "All mine" as Ellie put, so I decided to test my skills with the bow. Nocking an arrow I took careful aim and fired, only for the arrow to embedd itself into the Clicker's right buttock which, while funny, wasn't an instant kill. The Clicker turned, shrieking in outrage and pain as I let another arrow fly, this own getting the Infected in the centre of its big stupid face. It fell over dead after that.

"Ha!" I barked in disbelief "Did you see that?" I turned to Ellie, who smiled and said "Well, there's room for improvement" and then chuckled at my scowling face.

We climbed down and left the store (I grabbed a hockey stick for later use), "Almost there" I kept telling myself, Joel was going to be fine. We climbed through another store, sneaking our way along when we heard both a combination of Infected grunts and human speech. Hiding behind a counter, I lobbed a brick over, making noise and once again, managed to pit both our enemies against each other.

"Kill each other, you fucks" Ellie muttered under her breath.

The results were similar to the last scramble we witnessed. The humans had firepower and the common sense to run and take over but they were no match to the Infected's superior numbers. The last man standing actually vaulted over into where we were hiding, but he was too occupied on the howling cries of the Runners to notice us, that was until Ellie put her knife in his neck, but by then it didn't really matter now did it?

"That's that then" Ellie exhaled

"Why am I finding this so goddamn entertaining?" I wondered aloud.

We crawled out through a hole in the roof into another store above, raising its door to the main area of the mall once again.

"Hey guys!" I heard one of the guys yell to his friends "I heard horses in here, help me get this open!"

"Shit!" I spat. They had made it to Joel before us.

"What do we do?" Ellie asked.

I wracked my brains for a solution.

"We improvise"


	18. Chapter 18

**Left Behind**

First rule of improvisation. If you think it'll work, do it. If you don't, but can't think of anything else, do it as well.

Ellie was the first one to act, picking up a nearby brick as and throwing it as hard as she could, drawing the men to our location. Drawing my bow, I took careful aim, and fired an arrow with such force it went through one guy's eye and pointed out the back of his fat head.

"Shit!" one of the men cursed, "It's that kid! The guy!"

"What about the old man and the girl?" I heard his lackey ask.

"Don't know, keep an eye out"

"Ellie" I whispered urgently "We gotta move" So we broke from cover and sprinted away to another hiding spot.

"The girl's with him!" someone yelled, followed by the bang of a gun. The shot missed by a mile though.

We ran into a store, right into the path of another one of those bastards. I swung my machete before he had time to call out, and the blade sank into his head, splitting him open like a pumpkin. The machete snapped after that. Shitty quality that was.

I took the man's bow and handed it to Ellie "Cover the door" I told her. She did, firing an arrow straight through a guy's neck in the process.

"We've almost got it!" called one of the men trying to break the door open. I decided that wouldn't do and so threw a brick down at him, clipping him in the side of the head. I wasn't sure if I had killed him or not, but Ellie was urging me to move, so we did.

From our new vantage point we could see that the men had abandoned their attempts to open the door, probably out of some sense of self-preservation. With our bows in hand, Ellie and I made our way there, downing any opponent that dared to cross our path and so much as look at us funny. A man came around the corner and I clubbed him to death with my hockey stick, it was slightly sturdier than the machete and managed to stay in piece afterwards.

"Got it!" the man last man standing yelled, breaking the lock to our hideout, but before he raised the door I yelled, "Hey dickhead!". He turned, and I shot him in the chess pieces. The man screamed in soprano until Ellie loosed her own arrow, and the man died looking like the world's most retarded unicorn.

"That's that" Ellie sighed with relief.

"Come on" I said, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder, "Let's fix this guy up"

We never got the chance. Before we reached the door, more of those fuckers crawled from the woodwork and ambushed us. "We got 'em pinned!" one of them yelled "Go finish 'em off"

"Fuck you!" Ellie yelled defiantly. We sprinted into a store, killing a few of the bastards through a deadly combination of gunfire and hockey, but there were still a dozen of these fuckers left. And they were coming from every direction. We ran upstairs, a few people came in from the bottom floor where we just were and gave pursuit, so Ellie passed me a molotov she had managed to put together and I dropped it over the bannister, reducing our attackers to piles of crispy human bacon.

"Get them!" a man yelled "We'll get the door"

Those shitstains were trying that shit again?

I fired an arrow and caught one of the men in the knee, another one followed soon after to silence his painful cries.

A different cry echoed from the other end of the mall. The unlikeliest cavalry had arrived.

"Oh shit! We got Infected!" somebody yelled, before his voice was torn from him, along with the rest of his neck.

The Infected wave hit the human forces with the rushing power of a flood, killing several of them before the men had time to react. Ellie decided to pitch in as well, throwing a bomb and killing a Clicker in the process. A Runner saw us and charged but I killed with a well-aimed blow from my hockey stick. The one surviving human was downed by Ellie, an arrow taking his life, while I killed the final Infected with the power of my hockey stick and my heel, which I brought down on it's head.

"If anyone's alive, don't even think about surprising us!" Ellie warned.

"Unless you wanna end up like your friends!" I added, pulling a corpse up and laying it across a table as a display "You understand that bitches?"

The silence was our only answer.

"That felt good" Ellie whooped.

"Let's get out of this shithole" I said.

"You better be alive Joel" Ellie muttered

We went inside, finding Joel and the horses exactly where we left them. It was stressful and tiring work but Ellie managed to stitch up Joel wound while I used whatever scraps I could find to make a sled. We figured it would do more harm than good if we tried to get Joel back on a horse so we elected to having him dragged along. Fortunately, winter was coming, leaving the ground a blanket of frost and ice, making it easier to pull Joel around, although with the strength of two horses I doubted it would have made matters any different. We rode on and on and on until the sun began to set and the horses began to tire. We stopped at the nearest place to rest (some cabin/house/thing at a lakeside resort). We left the horses in the garage while Ellie and I managed to carry Joel down into the basement.

We sat there, our kit laid out, the only sounds being the grunts of the horses upstairs and Joel's laboured breath.

"I'm not gonna lie" I spoke up "I wasn't sure he was gonna make it"

"He hasn't made it yet" Ellie disagreed "Once he's on his feet he'll have made it"

"Hey" I said softly, "You did good. You're allowed tp relax"

"We nearly lost him" she whispered, her voice cracking ever so slightly.

I shuffled to her side and put an arm around her "Look, I'll admit... he took a bad hit, and his gut looks bad right now. But do you know what? He's strong, Joel is. He's lost family, loved ones, and I'm sure this world has knocked him down more times that he would like to admit but guess what? It doesn't matter. Because he's Joel, and he's strong" I gave her shoulder a small squeeze "He'll survive. You'll see"

Ellie sniffled a little, drying her eyes with the back of her hand "You a shrink now, Kenneth?"

I chuckled, I couldn't help it. "I try" I shrugged.

We sat there in silence for what felt like a long time (probably about five/ten minutes) when Ellie spoke "I owe you a story"

"Huh?"

"Back before we ran into Tommy, I told you I'd tell about... about Riley one day"

Shit, this was thin ice I was tredding on now. I spoke hesitantly "Ellie, you don't have to tell me..."

"But I do" she said with enough conviction to convince me "So I'm gonna. So, sit back and relax" she said with a small smile.

I leaned back with my back flat against the wall, Ellie still nestled under my arm.

"Like I said last time" Ellie began "Riley was my friend back in Boston, like the only friend my age anyway. The thing was, she was a member of the Fireflies, like a junior Firefly or whatever and I was being trained for military, and so we got into this argument and... and she disappears" she seemed to lose her train of thought, lost in the memory of her friend.

"Go on" I said as gently as I could.

She took a breath, "Okay. So, she vanishes for about a month, then one day she turns up out of the blue and invites me to break curfew with her, go to the places that are off-limits, like the mall. The fucking mall"

"She seemed like a hellraiser"

Ellie smiled at that "Yeah, she was fun" she continued with her story "We snuck out into this huge mall, Riley managed to get the power up and running and we went everywhere. Fucking carousels, halloween stores, arcade games, Riley even brought a couple of water guns and we had a game with those" Ellie's smile faded for the briefest of moments, as if the next part was unpleasant "Turns out a bunch of Fireflies were scheduled to leave the city, and Riley was one of them"

"So it was all one big goodbye then?" I asked

"Kinda. It was, as well as a massive apology for all the times she was a bitch to me. But she didn't to go, to leave me, so she was looking for a reason to stay. She was seeing if I wanted her to stay. When I said I did, she pulled off her Firefly tag and... I kissed her"

It took a moment to process that I'll admit. "You kissed... a girl?"

"Yeah"

"Did you... I don't know, did you like it?"

"Yeah" she sounded a bit more uncertain, as if afraid of what my reaction would be.

"So you liked her then? In that way, I mean"

"Yeah"

"And how did she take it?"

"She..." there was a small, almost dopey smile on her face "She liked it"

I shrugged my shoulders "Okay. Continue"

Ellie smiled again "Okay. So I kissed her, she liked it, I was happy and then... that's when the Infected showed up"

The air suddenly got much colder.

"It was stupid" Ellie frowned "We were stupid. We were playing music, Runners heard so they came for us. We tried to run and get out, and we almost did but... I went down, Riley came back for me, and she got hit. We both got alive but... we both got bitten"

My heart sank a little. Ellie must have been devastated. She had just gotten her feelings out about the girl she liked, the girl she liked liked her back, and then boom, they were both fucked. "What happened?" I asked, my voice a whisper.

"None of us really knew what to do, so she says "let's just wait it out. Y'know we can be all poetic and just lose our minds together". So that's what we did, we waited to turn"

"And you found out you were immune" I realised

"Yeah"

I was almost afraid to ask but I voiced the question anyway "What happened to Riley?"

Ellie's hand clenched into a white-knuckled fist, and she refused to look up at me. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and distant-sounding, as if a part of her was no longer there "She died"

We sat there in silence, listening to the sound of Joel's breathing "Okay then. You want to hear about my family?"

Ellie looked at me, her green eyes reddened and bloodshot from silent tears "You don't have to..."

"Fairs fair" I interuppted her "You told me your story, I'll tell you mine"

"My Mom and Dad met a couple years after the outbreak, and decided they would stick together for some reason or another. Anyway, that's when they had me, then nine years after that, Mom's pregnant again. With my sister, Emma"

"What were they like?" Ellie asked.

"My Mom was nice. She was fair when it came to me, but she also taught me that the world was a dangerous place, and that I shouldn't expect kindness from other people. But, she never let me near the guns that she and Dad had"

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I was one of those kids who could break a vase just by breathing on it" I chuckled "I was an unlucky sonofabitch. The fact I can use a bow or even my shivs without something going wrong is a goddamn miracle, let me tell you. Anyway, my Dad was a funny guy, I remember that the most. He was patient, and a badass. Still never let me have a gun, but he taught me how to make a shiv out of almost anything"

"What about your sister?"

I stopped talking, my mind lost in about a thousand different memories, all of them had Emma. The one time we caught a raccoon in a trap for dinner and she wanted to keep it, blissfully unaware that we'd be going hungry for the fourth night in a row if we didn't kill it. Or that one time where we found an old bike and Emma refused to leave without it, regardless of whether or not it was rusted to all hell and beyond repair. So many happy ones, then there was always _that_ one. The one that haunted my dreams, my waking hours, my...

"Kenneth" Ellie said, giving my arm a friendly squeeze, bringing me back to reality. "I'm sorry"

I rubbed my eyes, fingers wet with tears I didn't even know I had shed "It's okay" I reassured her "Emma was a simple soul. She was always happy, always saw the bright side of things. My Mom would give her the lessons she taught me, but she never truly grasped how dangerous and fucked up the world was. Dad always told me to cut her some slack, that she was wasn't like other kids and that her brained was wired different. So I said "Okay, I'll look after her then" and I did. For five long happy years I did and then... then it all went wrong" The memory replayed in my mind with frightening clarity "We were searching houses. A street just outside of the QZs in California, Fresno I think my Dad called it when anyway, I turn my back on her for one second, and she's gone. I go looking for her, and then I hear her screaming. I find her, and there's this Runner beating her, so I ran at it, knocked it away and I..." My hands trembled at the thought "I took a brick and I hit it in the head, again and again and again until, well, you wouldn't recognise it anymore. Emma hugged me, and she's crying. She said she only wanted to help the sick lady and she couldn't understand why the lady bit her over and over again. She had bites, _bites as in plural_ , on her arms, her shoulder, one on her foot... you get the point"

The wind had picked up now, the sounds it made against the small basement window sounding like the wails of a mournful ghost.

"Anyway" I continued "I told Mom and Dad, and they... they couldn't do it, they didn't want to do it, no one did. So we left it alone, Mom bandaged Emma up and we went to sleep that night as if everything was usual. Emma turned while we were sleeping" I heard Ellie take a quick breath in subdued shock "She went for my Mom first. She didn't have time to react, Emma... no, _it_ just tore her up. My god, the screams..." I began to shake as the panic of the memory filled me "It saw me next, and it went for me but... but Dad shot it, shot _her_ , fuck" I blinked away some stray tears "Dad didn't cope, couldn't cope. I understood that, but what happened next..." I couldn't finish the story.

"He killed himself" Ellie finished somberly "Just like Henry did"

I started crying. Properly crying, real heaving sobs and everything "I was fourteen, for God's sake. Fucking fourteen. And he left me, he killed himself and he left me. I was alone"

I didn't say anything else. I couldn't say anything else. I just sat there, crying like a baby while Ellie watched on, still wrapped under my arm.

"I understand" she said "It's like you said. We've all lost someone. You may have been alone for a long time, but Kenneth, you're not anymore, alright? You've got Joel, you've got me, you've got the fucking horses. And we're not going anywhere" she gave me a one-armed hug. "We should get some sleep" she said, resting her head on my shoulder and closing her eyes.

"Okay" I sighed. As I leaned back against the wall and sleep took hold, my final conscious thoughts were about what Ellie said. I had a new family, a family with Joel and Ellie. It was little, and broken, but God it was a good one.

And so I made a silent promise to Ellie, to Joel, to Callus and Phillip. We were a family, and there would be no force on Earth that would tear us apart.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Right, this was a big one I think.

I always find the chapters where there's more bonding between characters difficult, so if you could, leave me some criticism (and some praise, hopefully) about this chapter and how I could improve upon it or in other works.

Anyway, thanks for reading, I love you all.

Up Next: Brace yourself, because winter is coming.


	19. Chapter 19

**New Faces and Old Situations**

Well, winter has been officially around for a couple of weeks now and we are up to our asses in snow. Due to Joel's condition, we couldn't go anywhere, and while the woods did have enough game, Joel was nowhere near the picture of health. His injuries were healing, but he needed meds, otherwise the old guy was fucked.

Ellie and I were out hunting again, we were both riding Callus as he trekked through the snow. He snorted with discomfort, he hated the cold just as much as we did. Unfortunately he was the only quick way around.

We had lost Phillip just last week. The poor bugger had fallen down a cliff and broken a couple legs. The tears didn't stop that day. Ellie called it a mercy, doesn't dull the blow though. I was always a softy when it came to animals.

Ellie pulled the horse to a stop and silently dropped, drawing an arrow with expert skill. I didn't know what she had seen until she had shot it. A snow-white rabbit, now impaled into the dirt with an arrow through its side, dead probably before the arrow hit the earth. "Good shot" I stated.

Ellie trudged over to her prize, pulling the arrow and tying the catch to the saddle "Won't last very long though" she sighed.

We were low on food. And while a rabbit was a good catch, it wouldn't feed three hungry souls. A snapped twig alerted me to another prescence. It was a deer. A big muscular buck less than twenty yards off. It would have been a beautiful sight if I wasn't so hungry, all I could think about was the smell of cooked venison. I tapped Ellie on the shoulder and she saw it too. I slipped off the saddle, we'd need to work together to hunt game this big.

"Sorry boy" I apologised to the horse, "You'll scare it" I tied the horse's reins to a nearby tree, probably not the best idea but we were in a rush, the buck was nearly gone. Ellie had already stalked off in pursuit. I was at her side in no time though.

I was about to ask where it had gone, when the animal burst across my line of vision, running off deeper into the forest.

"You go that way" Ellie ordered, nodding in the direction of some rock formations "I'll stay on his ass"

I nodded and was off within a heartbeat, bow and arrow in hand. My skills with a bow had drastically improved since the scuffle in the mall (my skill with firearms was still painfully lacking) and I was perfectly confident about my chances with this kill.

I saw the stag bellow with pain as an arrow (Ellie's arrow) struck its hindquarters and it ran towards me. With careful aim I let an arrow fly, which struck it in the shoulder. It kept running so I gave chase, Ellie not far behind. Keeping to the rocks, I managed to get in close and stick another arrow into the beastie, before it ran into the path of one of Ellie's arrows. It was _still_ standing. It ran further into the brush, Ellie in hot pursuit.

"How are you still alive?" I muttered to myself as I followed the blood trail as Ellie had no doubt done already. I followed its and Ellie's tracks through the woods and over fences before I emerged towards what seemed to be some kind of old factory. Taking the view in for the briefest of moments, I followed the tracks through a broken section of building when I heard the sound of voices. Dropping low, I stealthily investigated. I came to the sight of two men, each armed. They had found the deer, which had seemingly succumbed to blood loss. Unfortunately, Ellie was also there, and was now caught between them, bow at the ready, but outnumbered.

"Any sudden moves and I put one right between your eyes" Ellie warned them "Ditto for buddy-boy over there"

I quietly nocked an arrow as I snuck up behind the men. "Name's David" one man introduced himself "This here's my friend, James" added with a gesture towards his companion "We're from a larger group. Women. Children. We're all very, very hungry"

Playing the women-kids card. Clever, but overused in my book. Still, it's an idea.

"So are we" I spoke up, alerting the men to my presence. The guy in the hat, James I think the other called him, spun towards me, hand going for his gun, but froze when he saw my readied arrow and raised eyebrows "I don't think so"

"Families" Ellie spoke, going along with my lie "All very hungry too"

The two men looked at each other, before the bearded one (David) spoke to Ellie "Well, maybe we could uh, trade you for some of that meat there". He shrugged his shoulders "You must need something. Weapons, ammo, clothes..."

"Medicine!" Ellie blurted out.

"You got any antibiotics?" I asked them.

They shared another look before David spoke again "We do. Back at camp. If you come with us we can get you what you need"

He took a step closer to Ellie, and I pointed my arrow at him in response "No chance. Your friend can get it. You stay here. No meds, no meat. Understand?"

"Anyone else shows up..." Ellie warned

"You put one between my eyes?" David finished

"Look at you" I quipped "You're learning"

There was the briefest look of anger on David's face, and just as quickly it was replaced by calm again. He turned to his friend "Bring two bottles of penicillin and a syringe" James looked like he wanted to protest but David seemed like the case was closed "Go on, make it fast".

James left, and so four became three. The idea of killing him quickly came to my mind I admit. Kill him, hide the body, wait for the other guy to come back with meds and just kill him and loot the corpse. I was pragmatic enough to pull it off, but frankly I was little apprehensive of their group's wrath. Never knew whether they have a small army's worth of firepower or not.

"I'll take that rifle" Ellie spoke. David handed her his hunting rifle without so much as a word (good for him because I still had an arrow aimed at the back of his head, and at this range, I couldn't miss).

There were a few seconds of silence before David was brave enough to speak again. "He's probably gonna be a while" he pointed at the factory "You mind if we take some shelter from the cold?"

Ellie and I shared a look. Ellie nodded so I spoke "Bring him with us" I gestured to the dead deer. David grabbed the animals antlers and dragged it across the snow into the building, my arrow never wavering away from him.

Five minutes, maybe ten, went by and David had started a small fire to warm us all. "You know," the man began to speak "You really shouldn't be out here all on your own"

"Not a fan of strangers" I explained. A well rehearsed lie.

"I see" David sighed "What's your name?" he asked Ellie.

"Why?"

"Look, I understand it's not easy to trust a couple of strangers" David shrugged "Whoever's hurt, you clearly care about them"

Ellie's gaze fell to stare into the fire, and I lay a comforting hand on her shoulder "I'm sure it's gonna be just fine" David assured her.

"We'll see" she muttered.

"We will" I said with confidence. I was never going to admit my own doubts, but I felt that I had to stay optimistic, at least when Ellie's feeling down herself.

Noises outside alerted us to an incoming prescence. Rising to meet the arrival we were shocked and surprised as a Clicker charged into the room. It locked its clicking gnashers in Ellie's direction before attacking. Two gunshots rang out and the Clicker fell. Before I could react, David marched over to the Infected's side and executed it with a couple more shots.

"You had another gun?" Ellie gawked at David's not-so-hidden pistol.

"Sorry" the man shrugged.

I was tempted to shoot him there and then, but the oncoming noises of Infected made me change my mind.

"I'd like my rifle back" David said

"No, you can keep your pistol!" I snapped, panic building in my voice. "Ellie, you can use that thing?"

She nodded in response "I've had practice, remember?"

Then the Infected came crashing through the windows. I took my place in one of the corners, arrow drawn, ready to kill the Infected breaking in.

David threw a tarp over the deer "Making sure they don't find him" he quickly explained

"Priorities" I snapped.

"I'm gettin' tired of your mouth kid" he muttered.

An arrow went flying from my bow into the skull of a Runner, and it dropped like a puppet without strings.

"Make every shot count!" David shouted.

"We've done this before" Ellie retorted through gritted teeth, scoring a headshot on a Clicker.

There was a crash to our left as Infected started smashing their way in on the other side. "Move!" I yelled, cracking a Runner across the face with my bow and ducking away from its flailing limbs. Another Infected crawled through to get at us, only for Ellie to kill it with another headshot.

"You weren't kidding" David admitted "You're a better shot thing than I am"

I started to push a metal cabinet in front of one of the windows "Help me with this" I asked them. They complied, only for a Clicker to reached through an open window and grabbing Ellie by her jacket. She cried out in panic, but I brought down my hockey stick (that I had managed to sharpen down into a stake after it had broken) into its head.

"Look out!" I heard David cry out before I turned to see a Runner tackle me. Buuuut it ran straight into my stake so I won pretty easily. But more and more Infected kept spilling through the windows.

"Screw it" David spat "We're getting out of this room" He kicked a door off its hinges and ran through, Ellie and I running after him, the screams and roars of Infected following behind us.

"Cover the path" I ordered Ellie as David and I pushed a cabinet to block the path, stopping the pursuing Clickers (well, one ran and got pinned by the cabinet. It died). We broke through some double doors into the main part of the factory.

"Do you know where you're going?" Ellie asked David.

"I've never set foot in this place" he admitted

"Fantastic" I muttered sarcastically.

We ran through the labyrinth of walkways and machinery, climbing the stairwell into the upper reaches of the factory.

"How you both holding up?" David asked over his shoulder.

"Don't worry about us" Ellie assured him, sharing a quick smile with me.

We travelled along the walkways when we heard the horrific wrench of metal, then suddenly Ellie was no longer beside me. The section she stood on had completely fallen away.

"Ellie!"

"Hey, kid. Are you alright?" David called, his voice set with a tone of worry.

"I'm fine" I heard her groan. I sighed with relief.

"Alright, we're gonna find a way to you, okay?" I called, before David urgently tapped me on the shoulder. There were Clickers inbound.

"Shit. Ellie, run!" I called down to her. I could see more Infected closing in on her location "We'll find you!"

"Kid, we gotta move!" David urged me. So we ran, leaving Ellie all alone.

"Shitshitshitshit..." I was muttering.

"She'll be fine" David said.

"I know she will" I snapped. Didn't make me feel better though. We ducked around a corner and managed to kill the Clicker pursuing us, whereupon we descended back to ground floor. A Clicker blocked our path. I fired a quick shot, the arrow landing in its leg, while David finished it with a couple shots from his handgun. We rounded the corner, straight into Ellie.

"Ellie!" I exclaimed in a loud whisper, trapping the small girl in a suffocating embrace.

Ellie patted me on the back before squirming out of my arms, "Survive now, hug later". I nodded, and so we ran, which came to a dead end.

"Shit!" I spat, panic creeping into my throat.

"There," Ellie pointed "A ladder". Sure it was, there was a ladder on the level above us, but it was inaccessible. Ellie ran to a ledge. "Here," she spoke to David "C'mere and boost me up. I'll circle around and get it".

David complied, and so we were split up once more. We heard a single rifle shot that seemed to echo throughout the entire facility, followed by a choir of Clickers all screeching in unison.

"Hey" Ellie was back, rifle in hand "I'm gonna knock this down"

She pushed the ladder down to us, where David rested against the wall, and we climbed towards what we hoped was an exit. Running along an ascending hallway we came to (surprise, surprise) a dead end.

"Shit!" I cried out (again).

"Can you _please_ watch your language?" David asked somewhat exasperatedly.

"Hey, this is how I deal with panic old man" I retorted.

"Hey guys!" Ellie called. She had come across a couple of bodies, and a generous supply of makeshift bombs and molotovs, as well as ammunition for her rifle.

"Lord" David muttered "I've been lookin' for these boys"

"I'm sorry" I said, offering what little condolences I had. David nodded like he understood what I was trying to do.

"Doesn't matter" he finally said.

"Okay" I spoke again, "We need to set traps. Ellie?"

She nodded "These look kind of like the ones Joel had, I could use some string, make a tripwire"

"Do it" I grinned. As she ran for the door I turned to David "Grab a molotov" I told him "Keep it on you, and don't, whatever you do, light it unless you're going to throw it"

David stood there a little stunned, as if he wasn't used to taking orders from someone about half his age, but nevertheless grabbed one and tucked it under his jacket for later use.

No less than a few minutes later did we hear the thunderous steps of incoming Infected. "Here they come!" David called. We took positions at the door, being careful not to stand in the blast radius of the bomb "Hold the line!" I ordered, firing an arrow through a Runner's sternum. None came close to the tripwire, they fell before they got anywhere near us, although the crashes above our heads suggested they were looking for alternative entrances.

"They're on the roof!" Ellie cried, moving away from the door, killing a Runner that fallen through the broken skylight.

David moved away as well, shooting Infected that were spilling in from the windows. I kept to the hallway, downing any Infected that dared to so much as look at me funny when I reached for my quiver, and found nothing but air.

"I'm out!" I yelled.

And if you thought things couldn't get any worse well oh boy, you would be wrong. There was a loud crash as something fell through the skylight. Its body shape unmistakeable.

"It's a Bloater!" I warned the others.

"A what?" David asked. He clearly had never heard the term before.

"One of those big fucking guys" Ellie explained.

I tossed a molotov at the monstrosity, the bottle breaking all over its mutated body. The creature bellowed in pain, turning towards me with murderous intent.

Suddenly I was very aware I was unarmed. Okay well had a wooden stake and my trusty toothbrush shiv, but I wasn't exactly dealing with Dracula here.

The Bloater grabbed me with its clawed hands, its unkempt fingernails digging into my flesh. I cried out in pain and fear, swinging my stake wildly, only to hit the bastard in an armoured pectoral.

I felt the Bloater's inhuman grip start to tear, and I screamed as I felt what seemed like my arm coming out of the socket. Then it released me, good thing too because otherwise I would have been burnt to a crisp, I got away with only with some singed arm hairs thankfully. Another molotov had hit it in the back, burning through its armoured plates. I crawled away, nursing my injured shoulder, and then the Bloater stumbled onto the tripwire, whereupon its fat ass exploded. Looks like I wasn't getting my stake back.

I sat there, leaning against the wall for what seemed like ages when David came over to me and offered a hand up. I took it, and he checked my shoulder "Nothing broken"

The silence continued. "You know" David started "I think we did it"

"Really?" Ellie asked

"Don't sound so disappointed" the old man smiled

"More like disbelief"

We walked back down the way we came. Back to the deer. I was walking alongside Ellie, David leading us, collecting my arrows and completely amazed by the lack of noise "You hear that?" I asked Ellie.

"No Infected" she noted with a smile.

"No Infected" the smile on my face was big enough to rival hers.

Our deer was untouched by the horde, and the three of us settled back around the fire that David managed to get going again.

"You kids handled yourselves pretty well back there" David spoke "I'd say we make a pretty good team"

"We got lucky" Ellie scoffed.

"No. There ain't no such thing as luck" David responded with a small smile. "No you see, I believe that everything happens for a reason"

I scoffed a little at his statement and his face suddenly turned serious. "It's true. And I can prove it"

"Sure you can" I mocked.

"I can" he insisted "Now listen"

Both Ellie and I leaned foward a little to hear his story.

"You see this winter? Now this winter has been especially cruel. A few weeks back I sent a group of men out, y'know, nearby town to look for food. Only a few of 'em came back" His expression seemed to turn darker with every word "They said that the others had been slaughtered by some crazy man" He looked up from his fire to look us straight in the eye "And get this... a crazy man travelling with a couple of kids"

Every hair that remained on my arms stood on end. This guys was one of them. The guys that tried to kill us. Nearly killed Joel!

"You see" he said, his voice barely a whisper "Everything happens for a reason"

My hand went for my shiv, and Ellie shot to her feet, rifle leveled at the man's head.

"Now don't get upset" David continued, his face civil once again "It's not your fault. You're just kids"

Shiv drawn, I turned to the door, to see that his friend had come back with a bag. And a gun pointing in my face.

I froze. "James, put the gun down" David commanded, the only emotion in his voice being mild irritation. Ellie swerved her rifle around to point at the newcomer.

"No way, David" James spoke, he was being much easier to read, his voice was only angry "I'm not gonna let them go"

"Lower the gun" David repeated, his voice calm but firm.

James complied after a bit of deliberation "Give 'em the medicine" David ordered. James handed the bag to me, we stared daggers at each other the whole time.

"The others aren't gonna be happy about this" James argued.

"Well that's not your concern" David assured him.

Ellie took the lead, forcing James away from the door with her rifle. Just as we left, David spoke again.

"You won't survive out there" he stared at Ellie "I can protect you"

I was liking this guy less and less. The way he stared at Ellie, with such weird look of... fondness maybe? Anyway, he was making my skin crawl.

"Fuck that" I spat at him.

"We're good" said Ellie.

We ran. We didn't stop running until we were back where we had left Callus. We quickly had him untied and we were racing back home.

Ellie raced down to Joel with the meds while I unsaddled Callus, whispering soft tones and apologies for leaving him in the snow. When I was done, I went down to join Ellie. She had already given the old man the penicillin, and her backpack was under her head as she curled up beside Joel, fast asleep. I smiled at that.

I lay down against the wall facing the window, watching and waiting for anything to follow us, to find us.

It took me a while before I finally fell asleep.


	20. Chapter 20

**Asking a Few Questions**

I woke to the sound of Joel's pained groans. I was on my feet almost immediately. The sun was up, I had slept in.

"Joel" I spoke, "It's okay, you're alright"

"Water" came his gravelly speech.

I gave him some water from the bottle in my pack, he coughed a little but he drank.

"Where are we?" he asked as I helped him into a sitting position.

"Some resort by... Whitelake, I think" I answered "You've been a bit out of it for a while"

"Where's Ellie?"

I cursed to myself, where _was_ Ellie?

"She might be hunting" I said "Be the first time she's gone off on her own though"

Joel's face hardened "Help me up"

"Woah, wait for a sec-"

"Get me up" he growled "We need to find her"

Reluctantly, I helped Joel to his feet. He was a bit wobbly, but he stood. Taking hesitant steps, Joel donned his backpack and climbed out of the basement.

"Ellie?" I heard him call.

I checked the garage. Callus was gone.

I found Joel on the way to the back door, leaning on the kitchen counter, taking shaky breaths.

"You don't look so good"

"I'm fine" he insisted "I've survived the worst of it" he looked up from his feet to stare at me "She's not here"

"Neither's the horse" I confirmed "She's gone"

"Where's the other horse?"

"Got hurt really bad about a week ago. Had to put it down"

Joel wiped his brow "Jesus" he muttered, "We'll go on foot then"

"Hey" I started "You may have managed the stairs, but you're still recovering..."

"We got a lotta ground to cover" Joel argued "You need me"

"If Ellie finds out about this..."

"What? You scared about pissin' off a fourteen-year-old girl?"

"No. I'm scared of pissing off _Ellie_ "

"Heh" the old man chuckled "Smart boy" He walked to the door, his stride back and purpose in his steps "Come on then"

"Shit" I muttered before following him out.

It was freezing. A storm was brewing, bringing with it a new layer of snow.

"Where'd the hell'd she go?" Joel muttered.

"There" I pointed, spying Callus's prints "Tracks lead that way"

We walked about halfway down the street when we saw a gate open ahead, spilling out about half-a-dozen men who all opened fire on us.

"It's them!" I heard one of them cry as we dove behind a car.

"The hell are these guys?" Joel growled.

"From what I'm guessing" I explained "There the guys from the university. Ellie and I ran into them yesterday, they must've followed us back"

"Then they probably know where she is" Joel concluded. The tone of voice he used made me think he didn't plan on asking nicely, it kind of made me glad he was my side.

"Let's ask" I spoke with an identical edge to my voice. Peeping from cover, I loosed an arrow which, while it didn't hit anyone, spooked a guy into poking his head out of cover. Joel fired with his El Diablo, and didn't miss.

We killed another guy before the remaining four decided to take the wise option: cut their losses and run.

"Where is she?" Joel roared as we gave chase.

I fired an arrow as we ran, hitting one of them in the leg. He fell with a cry, and Joel knocked him out cold with a running kick. Joel fired a shot with the El Diablo, the next man fell dead, the shot shooting straight through the centre of his chest. The remaining two vaulted the fence and out of sight.

We followed, and Joel was clubbed on the side of the head and was caught in a headlock. I didn't fare much better. The second guy punched me in the jaw, grabbed me by the collar of my jacket and threw me to the ground. Shiv drawn, I sprung to my feet as the bastard came at me with a knife. The resulting scrap was quick and brutal. Ducking low, I stabbed the man in the side, roughly where his kidney was, before grabbing a hold and furiously stabbing him repeatedly in the chest. Joel had escaped from his attackers grasp and had knocked him to the ground, dazed but alive.

"Let's hang on to 'em" he growled "We can ask 'em where their buddies are"

I nodded "I'll get the other guy"

I went back and found arrow-leg, who was just coming around, but still powerless as I dragged him back to the cabin.

"Lemme' go" he mumbled "I'll fuck you up"

"Aye, so you will" I snarked. I left him with Joel to "get them comfortable" while I checked the remainder of the neighbourhood. I came back with a few new tools, and thouroughly pissed off.

It seemed that Joel had got started without me. Arrow-leg had been tied to the radiator, his nose broken and bloody. The second was tied up in a chair in the middle of the room, with a knife in his kneecap. Joel rose from his own chair as I entered.

"I found our horse just outside of town" I whispered with barely restrained fury "Shot dead" I let that comment hang in the air before speaking "They know where Ellie is. I've brought a few things. Let me have a go, and I'll make him talk"

Joel saw the look in my eye and agreed. I sat in his chair and faced the bastard with a look of steel.

"Please..." he whimpered

"I've been told that you've not been very cooperative"

"Please" the guy begged "I don't know nuthin'"

"Oh I think you do" I hissed, before drawing my new kit from my pocket. "You know what I found a couple of houses down? An old woodworking kit. Now, most of it had been taken, but you'll never guess what was left behind" I paused for a moment (let the fucker squirm) "A little wooden mallet. Now, that's not very dangerous on its own but... I found this" I held it out in front of him, just to see if he recognised what it was. "This is a chisel. Now, if I remember right, this is one of the more... risky instruments you can find in a hardware store. This little bastard, with enough gusto, can chip through bone if you're not careful" I stared him in the eye, smiling with just enough sadism to unnerve him. "That's what the mallet's for"

"So, do you know where this is going?" I waited for a bit, just to see if he'd respond "You know what, don't answer that" I pressed the tip of the chisel against his still-intact kneecap, smiling a little at his whimper. "Now, answer this. Where. Is. The girl?"

The man's voice was quiet, his words almost impossible to understand. "What girl?"

"You know what girl!" Joel barked.

"Give me a minute" I assured him. I looked back to knifed-kneecap "You know what girl. About yay high, red-brown hair. She was wearing a dark green jacket, riding the horse you and your buddies shot and killed just outside of town so DON'T. FUCKING. LIE to me!"

"I don't know no girl" he whimpered.

"You're lying" I spat. With a single blow of my mallet, I hammered the chisel into his knee. He cried out in agony, swearing like a sailor.

"WHERE IS SHE?" I roared less than an inch from his face.

"She's alive" he wailed "She's back in town, she's..." He almost said something else but stopped.

"What?" I asked "What's happened to her?" I dropped my mallet, took a hold of the knife in his other knee, and gave it a little twist. He cried in pain "What?"

"David's got her" I cried "She's his newest pet"

"What?" my blood boiled at the implication. "David. The creepy guy with the beard" He nodded in response.

"Who's this David?" Joel asked.

"One of the guys we ran into yesterday" I quickly explained, before turning back to the prisoner "He your leader?"

He nodded.

I looked to Joel again, "You wanna take over". He nodded and I gave him the chair. I walked outside for some fresh air, a little sick from what I had just done. A necessary evil, I keep telling myself. A necessary evil.

I grabbed a nearby plank of wood, and decided to vent my frustration out the nearest tree. Shouting and yelling like a wild man, I beat that plank against the worn wooden tree. It was my fault. It never occurred to me that those fuckers might have followed us. I let Ellie go out on her own. It had to be my fault. The plank snapped in half with one final blow. I had to wipe away some tears with the back of a bloodied hand.

My energy spent, I went back inside. Joel was clubbing arrow-leg to death with a pipe. I winced a little at the sound of the blows, and checked knife-kneecap. He was dead. Joel had strangled him.

"Where are we going?" I asked him.

"Northwest" he answered. "Follow me"

Joel stormed out, purpose seeming to have numbed the healing wound in his gut.

"We're coming Ellie" I whispered to myself.


	21. Chapter 21

**The Cavalry**

Finding the town was a lot harder than it should have been. That storm I was talking about, it was in full swing now. You could barely see your own hand in front of your face. Pretty bad considering shooting things is kind of dependent on your vision.

But I digress, Joel and I made into the town. "Stick close to me kid" Joel said. For the first time since the old man woke up, I was perfectly willing to follow him. If we were to get separated in this blizzard, I probably wouldn't be able to distinguish friend from foe ie. dead Joel.

We passed a gas station when we heard guards bickering. Pretty pointless shit, bitching about the cold, about whether or not this David was fit to lead... wait, what was that about the infected girl?

"Think that's our girl?" I asked Joel.

"Could be" he replied, "Best to stay outta the way until we know for sure"

So we moved on. But not for long, seeing as we came to a barricade of sorts. A big wall with the only way through being the opened trailer of some big rig. We took cover in a nearby motel room.

"I don't see a way we can sneak past this" I said.

"Neither can I" Joel admitted. He looked me in the eye with a steely glare. "We'll split. Keep an ear out. If you shoot me, I'm gonna be pissed"

"No promises" I spoke with a lopsided grin. Joel just stared back.

"Right, forgot. It was Ellie with the sense of humour"

"I have a sense of humour" Joel defended "Just not yours"

I had to supress a chuckle so we weren't overheard. "See you soon"

Joel gave a quick nod and was gone, just like that. You'd be forgiven if you thought he was a younger man, the way he could move.

Anyhow, it was time I left. But first... the guard on top of the truck. One arrow... shit, I missed. I got him on the second try though. How was it that no one noticed him?

Oops, spoke too soon. I had duck my head as a shotgun round smoothed a groove across my scalp.

Darting away from the window, my head stinging like a bitch, I dove behind the bed, knocking over a corked bottle in the process. Curious, I uncorked it and took a whiff. The toxic aroma of medicinal spirits clouded my senses for a brief moment as I came up with a plan. I tore off a piece of bed sheet, jamming it down the bottleneck and fumbled for my matches (never go anywhere without them!) when I heard someone come in. It wasn't Joel. The guy came at me with a lead pipe, so I swung the bottle, smashing it against his shoulder. The man cried out in pain, then proceeded to scream as I threw a match at him, the lit flame igniting the alcohol that stained his jacket. My arm managed to catch fire as well, but I managed to kill the flames before they did any real damage. The other guy, not so much.

Running from the motel, I killed a man that came running through the truck trailer with a single shot, while Joel blasted away a person that tried to axe me from behind. The old man marched up to me, shotgun in hand, a look of irritation across his face.

"Thought you were staying put" he said.

"Yeah, about that..." I gestured to my hideout, which was now a very noticeable bonfire. With a look that just screamed "WTF?" Joel spoke "Let's keep movin'"

"Lead the way" I smirked. At least I found it funny.

We stalked through the barricade and further up the street, stealthily killing any fuckers that got in our way, when we came to a dead end. Taking the open door, we entered some sort of storage room. Joel spied something on the shelves and picked it up. It was Ellie's backpack.

"What's this doin' here?" he wondered aloud.

"Joel," I urged him, walking into the next room "We need to keep..."

I lost my words, along with the contents of my stomach, when I realised what I had just walked into. It was a butchers freezer room, or what would have been a freezer if there was any power. It was a filthy, the smell a foul combination of piss, crap and vomit. But it was the meat itself that sickened me.

They were _people_. Fucking people. Human beings hung from meat hooks, some were blindfolded, some weren't, all were bound at the wrists and ankles. And all their throats were slit. All long dead, their blood had soaked and dried on the tiled floor.

"What the actual fuck..." I spoke with vile revulsion.

"Kenneth, what..." Joel followed me through, and he also lost track of what he was saying. Although credit to him, he didn't throw up. "Oh Christ"

Monsters. They were monsters. True, fucking cannibal monsters. Killing people was one thing but this... This was wrong. Totally and horribly wrong.

"We need to find Ellie" Joel said with evident panic "Now"

We fled the butchers, and emerged to see a restaurant completely engulfed in flames.

"Jesus" Joel muttered

"What are the odds Ellie did that?" I asked him

"She might still be in there" Joel realised with horror.

We sprinted our way to the door. It was locked but I managed to kick it open. Choking on the sudden burst of smoke, we charged in to see Ellie straddling some poor bastard, whacking at his face with a machete.

"Ellie!" I called out. Joel went one step further and pulled her off the corpse into a rib-crushing embrace.

"Stop!" he spoke into her ear.

Ellie only writhed and squirmed in his grasp "No!" she screamed "Don't fucking touch me!"

"Ellie!" I was by her side, my voice as calming as it could be "It's okay. It's us" I gently pulled her chin up so she could see my face "It's us"

"He tried to..." she sobbed into Joel's jacket.

Joel's face just melted into concern "Oh baby girl" he whispered as he hugged her, his mind having slipped into a state of parental comfort.

I stared at David's corpse, or at least I hoped it was David's, you couldn't tell. Honestly, I think we'd all sleep better if I didn't go into detail, needless to say, his face was unrecogniseable. I suddenly felt the urge to start hacking at him myself, not that it would done anything.

"Let's go" Joel spoke after a while.

"Give me five minutes" I asked "There's something I need to do" I turned to Ellie "I'm gonna need your knife" They'd tell me later I was kind of in some kind of emotionless haze. My voice was eerily calm, and my face apparently made even Joel nervous.

As the others left, I dragged David's body out of the inferno and propped against another building. With a downward swing, I brought the machete down on his shoulder, stopping halfway, stuck in both the body and the window pane behind it. Making sure the body was incapable of moving, I cut open his jacket and shirt and starting carving a sloppy message into his chest. A little something for his buddies when they no doubt found him.

KID FUKR  
CANNIBL  
GRUB'S UP FUKS

No one tries to take my family away from me.

 _No one_.


	22. Chapter 22

**A Quick Recovery**

We were losing her.

Ellie doesn't sleep next to me anymore. She eats, but not with us, she doesn't even speak half the time unless she's spoken to, and even then she's unusually sedate.

Something's broken in the girl, and I'm at my wits end trying to find a way to get her out of her funk.

Joel's frustrated too, although ironically Ellie's currently bringing out the best in him. A caring, fatherly, not-so-hardass side of his personality. A side so rarely seen that I would've laughed at it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes.

I doubt that she would've recovered before Salt Lake City if it hadn't been that for that damn comic book.

I found it in an old abandoned steakhouse on our way to the Fireflies. Some town, Lolo I think Joel called it. It was old, but readable.

I held on to it until we stopped to camp for the night. Joel had managed to catch a rabbit so at least we had some food. I approached Ellie as she curled to go to sleep.

"Psst. Ellie" I spoke in a hushed tone. She flinched a little when my hand touched her shoulder. Can't blame her, but still jarring.

"Hey," I whispered with a smile "I got you something" I handed her the comic, silently praying that it wasn't a copy that she already had.

She stared at its cover for a while, and flicked her way through the pages before she spoke "Where'd you get this?"

"The old steakhouse across town" I explained. "You like it?" I asked her, feeling hopeful.

She gave a small nod before stowing the comic away in her backpack.

I smiled. "Goodnight Ellie" I turned away to go find a place to rest when she spoke again.

"Endure and survive"

I turned back to her "What?"

"Endure and survive" Ellie repeated "The main character of Savage Starlight, she always said that"

"That one of your comics?" I asked her.

She nodded. "To the edge of the universe and back. Endure and survive"

"Well..." I started "I think that's some very good advice"

She didn't respond when I said that. But I felt that I had to do something.

"What's it about?" I asked her "The comic"

"This girl, Daniela Star, she goes travelling around space. Discovering worlds, fighting bad guys, that kind of shit y'know"

"Kinda like us" I offer with a lopsided smile.

Ellie didn't respond. I sighed and moved to sit next to her. "Look. I won't pretend to know what happened back there, or how you're feelin' about the whole thing. But what I do know, is that you can't stay this way"

Ellie just hung her head, streaks of what suspisciously looked like slient tears fell down her face.

"I'm not trying to force you to do anything" I appeased "But you know, what this Starlight girl says, "endure and survive", there's truth in that. Bad shit happens, and you get knocked down. But what matters most is that you don't stay down. You get up, you take the hits, and you move forward. You endure it, and you keep moving forward"

Cautiously, I moved to take her hand in mine. She didn't pull away, so I continued "Look, Ellie, you mean a lot to me. You're my friend, hell you're practically a sister to me. And Joel and me, we're your family. Just like you said, remember? We're your family. And we're always gonna be here for you. So... I want you to take your time. Let this thing run its course. Don't feel like you gotta get up now because everyone goes through this kind of shit differently. But when you do get back up, and I know you will 'cause you're a strong girl Ellie, never doubt that. When you put yourself back together, we'll be right here"

Ellie looked up at me, her green eyes, the colour of broken glass, shimmered with tears. She sniffled, and threw her arms around me, and started to sob. Pure, shameless crying I had never heard before. I felt her tears soak through my shoulder.

"Shh" I consoled her "Shh, it's okay"

She fell asleep not long after that, nestled in my arms.

* * *

Days went by, and the snows of winter thawed into spring, bringing with it life and energy. And Ellie. She was coming around, slowly but surely. Soon, we were hiking down the highway towards Salt Lake City.

I turned back to look at her, she was staring at a wall, admiring the deer carved into the stone.

"Pretty, isn't it?" I spoke

She turned to me, nodded, then looked back to stare at the deer.

"Hey kids!" I hear Joel yell

"What?"

"Did y'all hear me?"

"No. Why?"

"Look" he said, pointing to the sign "Hospital. This is where we get off"

We took the junction off the highway into the city, with Joel sighing ahead of us "Ah. You feel that breeze? I tell you, on a day like this I'd just sit on my porch, an' just pick away at my six-string" he smiled like the memory made him feel warm inside "When this is all over, I'm gonna have to teach you guys how to play guitar. I reckon you'd both really like that"

"Sure" I smiled back. "What d'you think, Ellie?"

Ellie just stared at the ground.

"Ellie?" Joel spoke up again.

"Hm?" her head snapped up to look at him, a puzzled look on her face, as if she'd just been awoken from some deep sleep. "Sure, that sounds great"

We kept walking along the road, when Ellie spoke "I dreamt about flying last night"

"Really?" I responded

"Yeah"

Joel and I shared a quick look. Progress.

"Go on" Joel smiled "Tell us about it"

"So" she began "I'm on this big plane full of people, and everyone is screaming and yelling 'cause the plane's going down. So I walk to the cockpit, open the door, there's no pilot. I try to use the controls but I obviously have no clue how to fly a plane. And right before it crashes... I wake up. I've never been on a plane before. Isn't that weird?"

"Well, dreams are weird" Joel admitted.

"You should hear about some of mine" I smirked.

"Do I really want to know what you dream about?" Ellie asked, eyebrows raised.

I laughed "Fair enough"

We kept walking until the rod cut into the city, where we had to use the abandoned vehicles to climb an old quarantine barrier. Another city, another abandoned QZ.

"There's that hospital the Firefly mentioned" Joel pointed off into the distance. Sure enough I could see it. What I couldn't see was a way to it. The streets were blocked with walls. We'd probably have to cut through several buildings.

"C'mon guys" Joel said, moving on again.

We followed him into the remains of an old cinema theatre. We quickly searched the lobby. Joel found an old note, gave it a quick read and scrunched it up into a ball, muttering something under his breath. Ellie just sat solemnly on a bench.

"You alright?" I heard Joel ask her.

"Yeah" she replied with forced enthusiasm "Why?"

"Nothing. You just seem a little extra quiet today"

"Oh. Sorry"

"No, it's not-"

"Found a ladder!" I announced, having heard enough.

Joel came over to look, and gave me a small pat on the back "Good job, kid" He looked over his shoulder "Ellie!" he called. There was no response "Ellie!" he called again, a little louder. No reply.

"Ellie!" I called myself. Ellie's head slowly rose to register our voices.

"What?"

"We found a ladder" I explained "But it's up on the balcony. Kinda need your help to get it"

"Oh. Okay"

Joel got her up to the next level, whereupon she went to grab the ladder.

"Here it comes" she said as it began to slide down. I took it to gently help it down, when I heard Ellie whisper "Oh my god". Next thing I knew, she let go of the ladder and it nearly landed on my head.

"Shit!" said I.

"Ellie?" Joel called up. There was no response.

I hurriedly laid the ladder up against the wall, "Ellie?" I shouted as I started to climb.

The two of us rose to see Ellie staring out the window, at something just out of sight. She turned to us, a look of childish wonder on her face.

"You gotta see this!" she grinned, before running off.

"Ellie wait!" Joel called as we gave chase.

Ellie kept ahead, every now and then looking out of the window to stare out at the thing that was just staying out of sight. A strange shadow passed along the window.

"The hell is that?" I asked

"No idea" Joel admitted

"Come on!" Ellie shouted, running away again "Comeoncomeoncomeon!"

So we followed her along what seemed to be an infuriatingly long and complicated twists and turns down the hallways.

"Slow down" Joel panted.

Fortunately, Ellie had stopped. "Whoa" she breathed.

"What's the big..." I complained, shouldering past her to see what the hell had us running, only to lose my voice as I saw what it was. The wall had fallen away, so it just stood there, close enough to touch.

It was a giraffe.

An honest-to-God giraffe. As if peeled straight from the books. Its coat was a beautiful patchwork of yellow and tan, its eyes, a dark ebony, twinkled with a look of tranquility.

Joel had entered the room, equally in awe. And slowly, as if not the spook the majestic creature, crept over, hand outstretched.

"Shh, don't scare it" Ellie warned.

"I won't" Joel whispered in reply. The giraffe barely noticed him, far to content feasting upon the leafy greens that grew upside the building. With a steady hand, Joel reached out and began to pet its neck.

"Wow" I quietly gasped.

Joel smiled, then turned to beckon us forward. Together, Ellie and I began the pat the animals massive neck, giggling like little children. The giraffe didn't seem to care in the slightest.

"Hey girl" I cooed.

"So fucking cool" Ellie whispered.

Slowly, the giraffe turned to leave. We watched it turn around the corner when Ellie started moving again "Where's it off to?"

"Slow down" I laughed as I ran after her, Joel close behind me. We raced up the stairs to the roof. There, we were treated to one of the most beatiful sights I had ever seen in my life.

A field lay out in front of us. There an entire... what was the word for more than one giraffe? Herd? Flock? Fuck it, I don't care. There were half a dozen of them, strolling across this giant pocket of green.

"Look at them all" Ellie spoke in awe.

We all leaned against the edge of the roof. The three of us, gazing in complete and utter awe at the spectacle before us, awestruck.

"So..." Joel spoke up "This everything you were hoping for?"

Ellie smiled a little "Well... it's had its ups and downs. But damn... you can't deny that view"

"Amen to that" I smiled. I look at the unlikely pair. "You know what guys. I feel like I need to get this off my chest. Seeing as we're all happy now"

They looked at me expectantly, Ellie with curiousity, Joel with suspicion (because of course!)

"Back in Pittsburgh. Back when we first met, I was in a pretty low place. I didn't see the value of a team, a group to watch your back. But now, I can see it. I see that... shit I've forgotten where I was going with this". Ellie chuckled a little.

"Okay" I continued "What I'm just trying to say is... Thank you. You both had my back, just as much as I've had yours. And I've come to see you both as family"

I smiled at Ellie "A sister" Then Joel "A grumpy uncle". A small "hmph" and a chuckle emanated from my small audience.

"Same" Ellie smiled back, giving me a hug.

"Well" Joel sighed with a wry smile "You have always pulled your own weight I guess" he clapped me on the shoulder "Even if you still can't shoot for shit"

I laughed at that. One of Joel's "grumpy uncle" jokes.

I exhaled loudly "Right. Now that's out of the way, let's get moving again"

Joel went for the door, but paused as his hand rested on the handle.

"We don't have to do this, you know" he said.

"Do what?" Ellie asked

"This Firefly thing" Joel explained

"What's the other option?" Ellie queried.

"We could go back to Tommy's. Just be done with this whole mess" he argued, sounding a little desperate.

"Joel" I spoke "What's wrong"

"I just..." he replied "I don't anyone splittin' us up. Like you said, we're a family"

You know, it never ocurred to me that at the end, this job might have break up the band.

"Look" Ellie said "I know you guys care but, we're finishing this. After all we've done, after every I've done, it can't be for nothing. Once we've done this, we'll go back to Tommy's, and we'll do whatever you guys want. Okay?"

I nodded. As did Joel, who opened the door. Ellie walked through, followed by Joel. I took a deep breath, and followed them in.

I had a good feeling that we were going to be fine. Whatever came our way, we would beat it together.

Nothing could stop us now. Could it?


	23. Chapter 23

**I Had To Ask**

We clambered our way down stairway after stairway, through darkened corridors and one shit-stained public toilet until we emerged once again into daylight.

Tents surrounded us. From what it looked like to me it was some kind of military funded camp.

"Well" Joel sighed "This place takes me back"

"How so?" I asked

"It was right after everything went down. I ended up in a triage just like this" His face seemed to age as he spoke "Man, everywhere you looked, you just... saw families torn apart. The whole damn world seemed to have turned upside down in a blink"

I gazed across the area, my imagination picturing all the people, soldiers, parents, children. My own parents. This world was hard enough to live in, but the idea that there was a life before it all, a life of warmth, safety, a life with a home, it must have been such a shock when the world went tits-up.

"Was that after you lost Sarah?" Ellie asked.

I tensed up by habit, expecting some kind of biting reply. But Joel just sighed "Yes, it was"

"I..." Ellie responded "I can't imagine losing someone you love like that. Losing everything that you know. I'm sorry, Joel"

"Me too" I added, my voice quiet.

"It's okay" Joel spoke. Wiping his brow with the back of his hand, he spoke again, his voice a bit more sure and controlled "Alright, let's look around, and move on"

So we split up, searching the camp for anything we could use. I found nothing personally, but when we met back up Joel was loading one of his guns with some rounds he found and Ellie came back with a Firefly's dogtag in hand (strange thing to collect).

"Okay" Joel said "Let's move on"

We turned to go, we had to cut through an old bus to continue.

Ellie spoke up. "Hey Joel, wait"

So he did.

Ellie pulled something out of her pocket, an old photo of some kind, and started to shuffle a little. As if she felt awkward about it "I found this, or well you could say I stole it, from Tommy's. I, uh, hope you don't mind"

Joel confusedly took the offered photo, and his facial features softened once he looked at it. I never saw what the image was but I had a good guess.

He made a weary chuckling sound before stowing the picture away in his pocket. He spoke, his voice barely a whisper "Well. No matter how how hard you try, I guess you can't escape your past. Thank you"

He turned and started walking towards me, oblivious to the small smile that had formed on Ellie's face.

We walked, weaving between the abandoned buses when we came to a block in the road.

"No way around this" Joel stated.

I pointed to our left. "We could always take the tunnels"

Admittedly, I didn't want to take the tunnels. They seemed to stretch deep under the city, beyond the reach of light. It lay there, like a hungry mouth. Or the gates of hell.

Ellie seemed to be thinking on the same wavelength as me. "There no other way?"

Joel slowly shook his head "No choice"

So we descended the slow slope of the road and into the darkness. Almost immediately I began to regret pointing this way out. I felt a chill run down my spine as my vision slowly became more and more dependent on the flashlights, my breathing became heavier, my reflexes flinched at every subtle sound.

"Did I ever mention how much I hated the dark" I muttered

"Once or twice" Ellie smirked.

We kept walking, our footsteps thundering in the silence.

"It's gonna be different this time" Ellie said suddenly

"What will?" Joel asked

"The Fireflies. They're gonna be Fireflies this time. I'm sure of it"

"There better be" I grunted "The sooner we find these guys, the sooner we go home. To houses, electricity. Hey, do think they have baths back at Tommy's?"

"They might do" Joel smiled

"God" I sighed "I'd sell my soul for a hot bath"

"So would I, son" Joel chuckled "So would I"

A guttural cry further down the tunnel ended any more conversation. We had Infected.

There so goddamn many. I could here the wailing of Runners as we crept along, climbing onto the top of a truck for a vantage point.

"Shit" I hissed as my eyes landed upon the stumbling form of a Bloater.

"What's the plan?" Ellie whispered.

Joel gazed over the area, taking in the sight of half-dozen Runners, two Clickers and the aforementioned Bloater. Drawing a bomb from his bag, he tossed it into the darkness. Predictably, the Infected ran to investigate, one of the Clickers and most of the Runners being instantly shredded by shrapnel. The Bloater, being the slow bastard that it was, never got into the blast radius.

"Light 'em up" Joel grunted

Nodding, I drew a bottle of gasoline from my backpack. Lighting the soaked rag, I thew the molotov with all my might. It exploded on the Bloater's back, the beast shrieking in agony.

Our score was short lived however as the surviving Runners charged us, but a few arrows later me and Joel had killed them. The Bloater didn't go down just as easy, it took a few arrows, gunshots and a healthy dose of Joel's flamethrower before it collapsed into a crispy heap, falling just within arms reach of Joel.

Joel exhaled with relief "That was too damn close"

We moved on, when we came across a pair of Clickers. I winced a little as we had to stalk them. The tunnel had began to flood and we had to move through ankle-deep water as quietly as we could (which is harder than it sounds). They died though, quite easily I may add. Clickers were always easy if you could catch them by surprise.

Although, we hadn't more than twenty yards when we came across another horde, and we swiftly climbed the nearby big-rig for safety.

"Two Bloaters" I whispered in disbelief.

"Same dance, kid" Joel reassured me (or himself, who knows?) "Just a few more folks, that's all"

He tossed another bomb, making sure it landed close to the Bloaters. The two were caught in the blast, unfortunately their armour protected them from most of the damage. Their fellow Clicker, not so much. It was chunky salsa.

Ellie threw a molotov. The Infected that were hit wailed in pain as they fell into writhing piles, those that survived came running.

So we held our ground. Me with my bow, Ellie and her handgun and Joel's trusty flamethrower. We killed all who dared to try and climb up the truck.

We were so focused on killing the final Bloater that none of us noticed the Runner until it hit me. Me and the Infected both fell from the truck, grappled in a struggle. I landed on the Runner when we hit the ground and managed to spring to my feet, drawing my shiv as it pounced at me. We both fell again, the water swirling at our feet made me a little more unsteady than I had anticipated. Luckily, the Runner landed on my shiv, the sharpened plastic having gone through its neck.

Throwing the beast off of me, I looked to see Ellie and Joel still trying to kill the Bloater, the monstrosity now having clambered onto the truck with them. Joel had dropped the flamethrower, the weapon having ran out of fuel, and was now pumping lead into the Infected with his shotgun.

I could only stare at the desperate situation unfolding. For the second time, I failed to notice the incoming Runner until it blindsided me, knocking the shiv from my hands. It never got another hit in, I grabbed it by the side of its head and hit it against a nearby car. Stunned, the Runner slipped off of me, and I scrambled away. I quicly fumbled for my shiv, but I couldn't find it under the water.

I rose to my feet as the Runner came at me again. But a single gunshot flew through its head and it fell like a sack of bricks.

Joel and Ellie both climbed down, their opponent finally dead as well.

"I'm startin' to hate this place" Joel grumbled.

"You're welcome, by the way" Ellie smiled, looking at me "That was my bullet" Noticing my distracted expression, her smile fell into a concerned frown "What is it?"

"Lost my toothbrush" I stated

Joel's eyebrows furrowed in confusion "What?"

"My shiv" I explained "I made it from an old toothbrush. Had it since Pittsburgh. Kind of became a lucky charm"

"Well, I doubt you're gonna find it" Joel said

"Yeah, I know" I admitted with a sad smile "Just really liked that shiv"

"Wasn't it pink?" Ellie smirked

"Your point?"

"No reason" she grinned "Pink. Very macho"

"Come on" Joel smiled "I wanna get outta here soon as possible, y'hear?"

"Sure thing old man" I responded "The sooner the better"

"Sooner the better" Ellie echoed in agreement.

We moved on, forced to use a section of fallen ventilation as a path, the actual ground having being too deep to walk in.

"That's something we can do!" Ellie exclaimed

"What?" I asked

"When we get back to Tommy's, you guys can teach me how to swim"

"You got it" Joel nodded. He stopped as we came across a blockage. "I'm gonna swim under this" he said "Then I'll find a ladder or something so you guys can climb over"

"Got it, chief" I gave a mock salute.

Joel dove under out of sight. No later than five minutes did we hear the sound of clambering boots and a southern "Here it comes!" as Joel lowered down a ladder for us. We climbed up and over, lowering ourselves back down into the flooded path.

"Stick to the right, it's shallower" Joel advised Ellie.

We walked along the tunnel, my balls now seven degrees colder from the cold, til we came to some steps that took us out the water and to a locked gate.

"It's jammed" Joel noted.

"Lift me through" Ellie offered, pointing to a lower section of the fence "I can get from the other side"

So Joel lifted her over. And everything went wrong.

A Clicker had been laying dormant on the other side, and sprung into vengeful life when Ellie landed. It charged her, it was going to tear her apart.

"Shit!" I cried. I tried to barge the gate open, but only succeeded in hurting my shoulder. Joel tried shooting the Infected creature through a gap in the fence, but he missed.

Ellie managed to duck out of the way of its charge, but there was no way in hell she would be able to keep that up. "Help!" she cried.

Powered by desperation, I stepped back and struck the gate with a kick. Pain flared in my foot, but the rusted pipe jamming the gate snapped from the impact and the gate swung open.

"Leave her alone!" I roared as I charged the Clicker, tackling it into the rail behind it. The animal screeched and swung at me with its clawed fingers, but I struck it across its deformed face with the flat of my forearm, wincing as its fungal skin scraped against my own. It was like rubbing my skin against a cinderblock.

The Clicker recovered quickly, and knocked me to the floor with its superior strength. I raised my hand to stop its teeth from plunging into my neck...

Joel quickly intervened, knocking the thing off with a kick before shooting it twice in the head.

"Ellie!" he panted "You okay?"

"Yeah" was her answer "That was intense"

"Too goddamn close" Joel grumbled. "How 'bout you kid?" he asked me

I barely heard him, or Ellie, who had repeated the question. All noise, all colour had faded away as I stared at my hand.

There, bleeding from my left palm, were the unmistakeable marks of a Clicker's teeth.

I had been bitten.

I was _infected._


	24. Chapter 24

**The Last Mile**

They're speaking to me, Joel and Ellie, their voices just faint white noise as I stare at this bite. No, it wasn't even a bite. But that fucking Clicker's teeth still broke the skin. That's _my_ blood, bleeding from _my_ palm.

"Shit" I said, my voice barely a whisper.

Ellie saw the mark first. She also said "Shit"

Joel's reaction was a little bit different. He gasped "Jesus Christ" and unconsciously reached for the gun strapped to his thigh.

"Kenneth?" Ellie spoke. I didn't reply. "Kenneth!"

I looked at her, but my gaze wasn't really focused on her. I was kind of just looking through her, if you know what I mean.

"How do you wanna do this?" she asked me.

In that moment, I felt a sense of clarity. Nothing makes you realise what you have to do like knowing that you're life's about to end, am I right?

My vision cleared, my ears started to register sound again.

I was back.

"Nothing" I said.

Joel looked at me with knitted eyebrows "What are you talkin' about? We need to do somethin' 'bout with this..."

"What we're going to do," I interuppted "Is soak it, wrap it up and wait til we get to the Fireflies"

"They might not be able to get the cure in time" Ellie argued

"It doesn't matter" I claimed "I'm not dying just yet. I wanna see this thing through to the end. I have a few hours anyway . That should be plenty of time"

Ellie stared at me for what felt like a really long time before sighing "Okay"

I gave a little smile "Right then. Let's move on"

Joel passed me a first aid kit. I winced a little as the alcohol burned into my cut. Whatever was in that thing's bite seemed to have made my hand extra sensitive. I wrapped up my hand with a bit of cloth before turning back to the others "Ready"

We started to walk off when I grabbed Joel by his arm. I spoke to him in a whisper so Ellie wouldn't hear. "If I do anything, anything at all, that makes you think I'm turning... you put me down. Understand?"

Joel responded with a grim nod "Got it"

So we kept going after that pact was made, ducking our way under pieces of sunken roof and air ducts, clambering over obstacles and swearing a bit as we hit our toes against hidden rises in the floor. We emerged into a giant room, most of it too flooded for Ellie to cross.

"There it is!" Ellie pointed. There, through a gap in the roof, we could see the hospital. The Fireflies were just around the corner.

"Brilliant" I spoke, "First things first though, what we doing with this?" I gestured to the expanse of water before us.

"There's a ladder" Joel pointed out "Ellie can cross over, and she can drop the ladder for us"

"How we getting her across?" I asked

"I'll find something" Joel offered, before jumping into the icy depths. He took a breath, and then he was gone.

Ellie and I stood there. Just a bunch of infected kids, still kicking around. For now.

"How does it feel?" Ellie asked

"Hm?"

"Your hand" she clarified "Does it hurt?"

"Not much" I lied. In truth, it felt like fire, except the pain was coming from underneath my skin. Fortunately it was my left hand, otherwise there'd be a problem everytime I try to grab something "Don't think I'll be using my bow though"

"That sucks" Ellie put it plainly.

I laughed then "Yeah"

There was a splash as a pallet fell from above us, followed by the splash of an incoming Joel.

"Get on" he spluttered.

Ellie clambered on and got off at the other side. She climbed up the stairways towards the ladder while Joel came back over to me, dripping wet.

"Here it comes" Ellie called, the ladder extending down towards us. Joel went to climb, but the ladder broke off with a crash.

"Shit Joel!" I exclaimed.

"What just happened?" Ellie called down.

"Damn ladder just broke off the wall" Joel answered, in a tone that you would more commonly use when admitting that you tripped or something.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Gimme' a moment" Joel replied. He surveyed the room, face scrunched up with concentration. After a while he carried the ladder over the other end of the room and placed it against the wall.

"We'll climb up to that balcony up there" he said "Then come down on the other side"

"Okay, but we still can't cross over to the stairs" I pointed out

"We'll use the ladder to make a bridge across" Joel explained

"That's... actually a good idea" I smiled.

Joel's eyebrows curled together as he frowned "Why do you sound so surprised?"

I couldn't help but laugh at that "Come on man, let's get moving"

So we followed out Joel's plan, using the ladder to climb to the balcony, before pulling the ladder up with us only to drop it onto the other side of the flooded room. We layed it down bewteen the platforms like a bridge and it (amazingly) took our weight.

"Oh, good idea!" Ellie called down to us approvingly.

"I know, right?" I called back.

We made our way up the stairs to Ellie before we made our way to the next tunnel. Well, I say tunnel, but in truth it was more of a river, full of submerged trucks and floating pieces of broken air shafts.

"Oh boy" Ellie muttered with dread.

"Just stay behind us, Ellie" I reassured her.

Joel went first, jumping down the river, using the debris and trucks as stepping stones. I followed, with Ellie not too far behind. We didn't get very far though.

Disaster struck. The vehicle that we were using for a bridge, a white bus that ran the width of the tunnel, started to tilt and move under our weight. "Move!" I heard Joel cry. I didn't have to be told twice. Ellie and I managed to run the length of the overturned bus, but the doors broke open under Joel's weight, and we could only try and reach for his hand as he and the bus were swept downriver. He fell into the interior of the bus.

"Joel!" Ellie desperately cried.

I muttered a curse under my breath. "Ellie, out of the way!" I shouted as I charged and leaped after the bus. I landed hard on my injured hand. I cried out in agony as what felt like a thousand needles worth of pain shot up my wrist. With gritted teeth I crawled along the side of the bus, staring through the windows for Joel, wincing as glass started to crack under my weight. I found him on the other end, pinned by the current of water rushing in. A second loud thud drew my attention to something behind me.

"Ellie! What the hell are you doing?"

"Helping"

Together, we tried to force the doors above Joel's head open. One door buckled slightly, so Joel managed to get a handhold and pitch in. The doors caved in, hitting Joel on the head in the process. Before we could anything about that though, the bus moved again, and Ellie and I fell into the water.

You want to know the strangest thing though? My first thought when I went in: it wasn't a panic over the fact that Ellie couldn't swim, it wasn't the pain of hitting my head against something metal, and it wasn't worry over Joel. It was my hand. What was a burning pain had lessened upon submersion. It didn't hurt anymore, although there was still an unbearable itch instead.

I felt something grab hold of me by the neck of my t-shirt. I was dragged through the water, gasping as that same something brought me to the shore and surface. I rolled onto my side to see Joel kneeling by Ellie's side, attempting to resuscitate her. She wasn't breathing.

"Ellie" I coughed. I tried to move over to help, but my limbs felt like lead, I was suddenly so very tired. With herculean effort, I put a hand to the throbbing pain in my head, hissing with the contact. My hand came away stained with blood.

"Well shhhhhhh..." I slurred before I blacked out.

* * *

I remember hearing voices. Two, maybe three? One was definitely masculine.

"... infected" I heard him say.

"Ma'am..." I heard another say, this was also a guy, or at least I think it was. "... we should try..."

Their voices faded in and out, as if I was hearing them through a radio. Their words all fuzzy and static-y.

"Do it" said a third voice. It sounded like a woman's.

I recalled the feeling of several hands on me, something tightening on my arm. Then there was excruciating pain. I heard a scream, a primal noise that chilled me to my bones, not realising it was my own.

I fainted again.

* * *

I awoke to blinding light. I thought I was dead at first. But it occurred to me that if I were dead, then I probably wouldn't feel so sore. I felt as though I had been kicked by a stag or something (yes, that's fucking sore, before you ask). I tried to move, but couldn't. My arms and legs felt like 100lb weights, and my right wrist was cuffed to the edge of the bed.

"How're you feeling?" came a voice to my right. I turned and my eyes fell upon a woman, with dark skin and messy black curls.

She rose out of her chair, and stood by the bed I was lying in.

"Where," I croaked, my throat dry and sore "Where am I?"

"You're with the Fireflies" the woman answered.

"The Fireflies" I repeated "We were looking for you guys"

She nodded, like she understood what I meant by that. "My men say they found you with a couple of other people"

"Yeah" I answered. Then I remembered the last time I saw them "Ellie! Is she...?"

The woman smiled "She's fine. They both are"

I sighed with relief. "Who are you?" I asked, just realising that I had never asked for a name.

"Marlene" she answered

"Marlene. Ellie's Marlene"

"The one and the same"

"I'll be honest, I thought you'd be older" I chuckled.

She didn't laugh with me unfortunately. Rather she pulled her chair over to my bedside and sat back down. "So who are you?" she asked me.

"Kenneth"

"Okay, Kenneth, how do you know Joel and Ellie?"

So I wound up telling her how I met up with Ellie, about we tried to kill each other, how I met Joel, how we met Henry and Sam, and I kept talking. The words seemed to spill from my tongue as I spoke, my voice growing stronger with every word. She was a good listener.

"You were lucky" she said when I had finished. "If you had been about an hour later we probably wouldn't had been able to save you"

"Save me? You mean you got the vaccine already?"

Marlene shook her head "No. But there were other methods at our disposal. They're just not one-hundred-percent reliable. That's why you're cuffed, in case it didn't work"

"So what did you..."

"How does your arm feel?" she asked.

"Sore"

"Have you actually looked at it?"

"No. Why?"

Her eyes shifted uncormfortably to my left arm. "Just... try to understand. It was either that or let you turn"

"Marlene, what the hell are you..." I turned to look at my arm. Only I couldn't, at least not at all of it. I could see my elbow, but below that was just wrapping upon wrapping of cloth. It was a bloodied stump.

The had cut my fucking arm off.


	25. Chapter 25

**Who Is The Real Monster?**

A flurry of thoughts were going through my head: swears and curses, a couple of puns (I was very attached to that hand, har-de-har) and some incoherent rambles that I was pretty sure weren't english (hijo de puta anyone?). I didn't say any of that though. What I did say was "Why didn't Joel think of that?"

"Because it probably would have killed you" Marlene responded "Amputation's a last resort for a reason. If you don't die from blood loss, it's far too easy for the wound to get infected. Normal infected, that is. We've managed to get most of this hospital back up and running and even then it was touch and go"

"So what happens now?" I asked her.

"We'll keep you here. You'll be given antibiotics over the next couple of days, just to make sure your arm doesn't get infected. After that, the choice is yours"

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little relieved. Maybe I had misjudged the Fireflies.

"What about Ellie and Joel?" I asked "Can I see them?"

Marlene's smile faltered a little "I'm afraid you can't go anywhere at the moment. Until you've passed the window and proved to us you're not infected anymore, we're going to have to keep in one place"

Okay, fair enough "Can you at least tell them I'm alright?"

"That... that won't be possible" Suddenly Marlene's smile didn't seem so warm and friendly. It seemed forced, and also a little said.

Worry built up in my chest "Why not?"

"Joel's left. Or well, he's leaving"

"Bullshit" I put it bluntly "He wouldn't leave Ellie" A horrible thought came to me "What have you done with her?"

Marlene definitely looked sad now "She's," she paused as if the sentence pained her "She's being prepped for surgery"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing "Surgery?" I repeated.

"The doctors say that the cordyceps, the growth inside her, has somehow mutated. It's why she's immune. Once they remove her growth, they can make a vaccine out of it. A vaccine"

"But the bite is on her arm" I said confusedly, if they wanted a sample of the cordyceps couldn't they take a bit from that. I mean, why would you need surgeons for a sample?"

Marlene looked uncormfortable and somewhat despondent as she spoke "Because the best cordyceps sample comes from the brain"

"The brain? Wouldn't that kill her?"

She didn't answer. Not that she needed to. The silence and the look on her face told me all I needed to know.

"Does she know?" I asked, my croaky voice now growling.

"She has.. been under sedation since she got here"

"Since she..." Fury exploded in my chest like a fire "So she hasn't even woken up yet? She came to you, unconscious, and you just decided to pop her on the operating table without her consent? For something that will get her killed?"

"We didn't have much of a choice" she feebly spoke.

"You didn't have a choice? You're the fucking boss! You always have a choice. For fucks sake, you practically raised her, why the fuck would you..."

"Because it's not about me!" she snapped, cutting me off. "There's no other choice here! How I feel doesn't matter. You're right, I am in charge. I have to think about the greater good"

"You're a fucking killer!" I spat "You all are. Don't talk about the greater good, bitch, you're gonna go a kill fourteen year old girl, a girl that considered you a friend and a mother. You may not be the one that's going to cut her open, but her blood is on your hands!"

Marlene's expression turned sombre "I know. And I'm going to have to live with that" She started to walk out of the room when she turned back to me "Our doctors will make you feel better. After that, you'll leave, and I never want to see you again"

"You won't see me coming" I growled, letting the threat hang in the air.

She stared at me for a while, then she left. A Firefly came in not soon after to watch me. No one special, just a generic Firefly goon with a rifle, sidearm and a knife strapped to his boot.

I lay there for what like hours, stewing in my frustrated outrage. Every now and then I would squirm and rub against the leather straps and cuffs that kept me bound, only for the Firefly to glare and grip his rifle in a manner that made it clear that he was just looking for a reason to shoot me.

"Do you know what they're up to?" I asked him "Marlene and the docs"

"Saving the human race" is what he said in reply.

"You know _how_ they're doing that? Do you know that in order to save the precious human race, they're gonna cut up an innocent girl, and steal her brain like a fucking zombie. You okay with that?"

"S'not my place, kid. I'm just a soldier"

"Just a soldier" I repeated with scorn "Just a stupid soldier huh? They say jump, you say how high, is that how that works?"

"You're starting to piss me off kid"

"Of course I am. I just made you realise how fucking brainless you are"

"Seriously. Shut the hell up"

"Step by step, heart to heart, left right left, we aaaaaall fall down..." I started to sing in the loudest, most obnoxious voice I could manage.

The soldier rose from his chair, his face going red from rage "Stupid kid, I'm warning you..." He pointed his rifle at me.

"Bit by bit, torn apart..." I continued, not really caring that I was about to get killed.

"Shut the fuck up!" he yelled, his finger on the trigger.

Gunshots and yells interuppted us both. We both stared at the door, the outside being illuminated by the flashes of gunfire.

"What the hell?" the Firefly muttered as he went to investigate. Suddenly the door burst open and he was struck down by a piece of pipe. A single gunshot went off and the Firefly lay dead. I recognised his killer almost immdediately.

"Joel! Thank God. Get me out of here"

Joel ran over to me a tried to undo my bonds "You look like hell" he commented.

I smiled a little "Good to see you too" My expression grew serious "Joel, they have Ellie. They're gonna..."

"I know" Joel said "He looked at my stump "Think you can still fight?"

I nodded towards "That guy's got a knife. I'll make do"

"Then let's go" he said.

"Hold on a moment" I spoke, gesturing to the hospital gown I was wearing "I need clothes"

"Your pack" Joel gestured to the backpack laying by the bed.

"Well shit, that's convenient" I stated as I rummaged through my bag for a change of clothes. While I changed, Joel went outside to check for any more Fireflies. Taking the Firefly's knife, I met him outside.

"Changing's actually really difficult when you've only got one arm" I admitted with a little smile.

Joel didn't return the gesture. Not that I blamed him though.

We moved throughout the building, fortunately there weren't that many Fireflies left, so we encountered minimal resistance, and those we did run into were quickly felled by our combined skill. My only problem was the occasional phantom pain and the odd moment when I forgot I was missing a hand, like that one guy I tried to strangle and just wound up looking like a knob because my grip was off.

We eventually heard the hushed voices of what sounded like doctors. We barged our way through the doors to find three surgeons standing around a still-untouched Ellie, draped in only a hospital gown.

Two of them backed up to wall but the third, the stupid ass, grabbed a scalpel and stood his ground.

"Doctor?" one of them spoke to scalpel-guy.

"What're you doing in here?" Scalpel-guy asked.

"We're here for the girl" I announced.

"No. I won't let you take her" You had to admit, the guy was pretty ballsy "This is our future. Think of all the lives we'll save"

Joel and I continued to stalk forward "You can save your own if you back up" I warned him "I don't want to kill you"

Still, he held his ground "Don't come any closer. I mean it"

Joel ran out of patience. With ruthless effieciency he tore the scalpel from the doctor's hand and stabbed him in the neck. He dropped dead almost instantly.

"Shit" I muttered. The guy was never a threat to anyone but himself. I genuinely didn't want to kill him.

"No!" one of the doctors screamed "You fucking animal!"

Joel didn't even blink as he drew his revolver and shot her dead.

"Shit Joel!" I cried in protest.

The third begged, but Joel took aim. He relented only when I put my knife to the back of his neck.

"That's enough Joel!" I pleaded "We have Ellie, let's just go"

Joel was still for a long time. "Fine"

I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. Joel unhooked Ellie from the machinery and we began to run through the corridors, the Fireflies calling behind us.

"Keep away!" I yelled behind us as we ran, they didn't seem to get the message and opened fire. Luckily we avoided dying and escaped into an elevator.

We exited into the parking lot, where there was a truck conveniently waiting for us. Hitting the emergency stop to prevent the Fireflies from recalling the elevator, we ran to the truck.

And there stood Marlene.

"You can't save her" She seemed slightly crazed, her handgun pointed straight at us "Even if you get her out of here, then what? How long before she's torn to pieces by a pack of Clickers? That is if she hasn't been raped and murdered first?"

"At least she gets a chance" I spat "You won't even give her that"

"Her life ain't yours to decide" Joel growled at her.

"It's what she'd want" she argued "And you know. You both do"

The horrible truth was, deep down, I knew she was right. Ellie would be willing to give her life to save humanity. If Marlene gave her the option, she would take it.

Marlene must've noticed something in our expressions, because she lowered the gun "Look... you can still do the right thing here" She approaching Joel, eyes pleading "She won't feel anything"

My gut felt all twisted and sore. I didn't want any more blood on my hands, but I knew what had to be done.

With a heavy heart, I threw my knife. Marlene gasped as the blade landed between her ribs and she collapsed.

"Get her in the truck" I told Joel. He wordlessly complied. Even then I was shocked by the emptiness in my voice. I felt like I was in a trance as I walked over to the crippled Marlene. With a single tug, I drew the knife from her side as she whimpered in pain.

"Please don't" she begged.

I shook my head "You'd come after her. You know I can't risk that"

I saw a single tear run down Marlene's face as I reached for her gun. I placed the barrel directly against her head. Her eyes closed and I pulled the trigger.

I left the gun there, beside her. The only thought that was going through my head at that point as I climbed into the truck's passenger seat was:

How do I tell Ellie?


	26. Chapter 26

**Something to Die For**

Ellie woke up just as we were leaving the city. I heard her groans as she stirred.

"What the hell am I wearing?" she muttered as she looked at herself.

"Hey, sleeping beauty" I spoke with forced cheer "How you feeling? You've been out for a while now"

"Like shit" she groaned as she tried to sit up.

"Just take it easy" Joel said "Drugs are still wearing off"

"What happened?" she asked as she rubbed her eyes.

A knot twisted in my stomach, thinking back to the carnage we caused. Unable to bring myself to speak, I looked to Joel to explain.

"We found the Fireflies" Joel explained "They saved you, Kenneth too. Turned out though there's a whole lot more like you, Ellie" He spoke in an almost robotic tone, as if he were reading a script, pausing in places like couldn't believe his own lie "There's been other people that are immune. Dozens actually. Ain't done a bit of good neither. They've actually st-" He stopped, the words seeming to catch in his throat "They've stopped looking for a cure"

Ellie looked at him with disbelief. She turned to me, as if she wanted me to clarify.

"It's..." I almost choked on the words "It's true, Ellie"

Ellie wouldn't look either of us in the eye. She looked absolutely crestfallen.

"I'm sorry" I whispered.

The car was quiet for a long time before Joel spoke up "Now. Let's go home"

The car ran out of gas about a couple hours later. Joel claimed without the car the most direct way back to Jackson would still take a couple days on foot. This actually got me angry enough to punch the fucking car which I immediately regretted after. My only hand was now hurting as badly as my arm. I still kind of needed the release though. I'd started getting a little crazy stuck in a car with two people I genuinely did not want to talk to.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate them. I still cared about them. But I couldn't look at either of them without remembering what Joel... what the both of us had to do. That and the pain in my arm was making me a little cranky. Since we left the Fireflies the phantom pains had been replaced by something with a little more sting. A burning sensation that went straight through my entire arm.

"Jesus Christ, it's freezing" I complained as we walked.

"What are you talking about?" Ellie asked, her own face glistening with sweat. We had managed to find her some new clothes, considering hospital gowns weren't exactly fit for the outdoors. She was now dressed in denim jeans and a red flannel shirt.

"I'm just saying, it's cold"

"You feelin' okay?" she asked

"Yeah, I'm fine" I assured her "Arm's just a little sore, y'know"

"Gotta admit, it's a little weird seeing you with only half an arm" she said

"Think it's weird for you? How do think it is for me?"

"Good point"

We spent the whole day walking through the woods until we came to what seemed like a ranger's cabin of sorts.

"We'll rest here for the night" Joel announced.

"Thank God" I exclaimed "I'm fucking knackered"

"I could sleep for a week" Ellie stated

"Amen to that" I agreed with her.

As we found places to sleep, I noticed the pain in my arm was lessening, much to my relief.

"I'm gonna need a wash soon" I claimed

"Yeah, I didn't want to say anything" Ellie smiled "But you smell like shit"

"You'll need to clean your arm while you're at it" Joel reminded me.

"Yeah, tomorrow man" I promised "I swear"

Joel hmphed in response, and was out like a light.

I was about to doze off myself, when I felt something poke my bad arm. I hissed in pain and turned to see... Ellie, who had come over to sit next to me.

"The fuck was that for?" I hissed.

"You're hiding something" Ellie whispered, so not to wake Joel.

"What are you talking about?" I asked

"Both of you are" she continued "Something happened with the Fireflies. What was it?"

"Nothing happened" I argued

"You're shit at lying. You know that right?" she claimed "I'm also not an idiot. I know when people aren't honest with me"

I could only grind my teeth in response.

"Kenneth" Ellie spoke again after a moment of silence "It's better if I hear it from one of you guys"

"So go ask Joel" I snapped "And quit bothering when I'm trying to sleep"

"You're being an asshole. You know that?"

I bit my tongue to stop me from saying something I would regret. With a breath and a moment to recollect myself I spoke again "Ellie, everything I do, everything Joel does. We just... we want to keep you safe"

"What do you mean?"

"We..." I sighed "It's nothing. Nothing. Just get some sleep okay?"

Ellie obviously wanted to talk more, so I turned away from her and slept on my side.

When I woke up the next morning, the first thing that hit me was the smell. God, Ellie wasn't kidding when she said I stinked.

"Morning" Ellie said when she saw me. From where I was lying I could see that she was up and if my ears were telling me anything, Joel was outside.

I tried to get up, but immediately felt dizzy and fell back on my ass.

"Can I get a hand here?" I asked her, hand outstretched. She helped me up.

"You feeling okay?" she asked

"Yeah, just a little dizzy" I admitted "You got anything to drink?"

She gave me a swig of water from her bottle and I managed to feel a little better, though it was really warm that morning.

Joel came back in "If I'm right, we're not far off from a lake. We can stop there, and clean up that arm of yours" He gestured to me.

"Alright then" I spoke. And then we were off.

As we walked I started to daydream about the good soak that awaited me in the lake, and how refreshingly cool it would feel. God knew how I needed it. It felt like a hundred degrees out and I was smelling something foul. So foul that Ellie felt the need to comment on it every two minutes.

We eventually made it to the lake. Ellie charged in with all the grace of a three-legged bull, while I tried to wade in slowly, wary of the sting I would undoubtedly feel.

 _Tried_ being the word there. I was in up to my knees when I was suddenly overcome with a sharp pain in my chest, and I fell face first into the water.

I can't remember whether I cried out or not, because the next thing I was aware off was a pair of strong hands dragging me out of the water, and some strange god-awful smell.

I could hear a couple of voices, fuzzy and fading in and out like a radio.

"Jesus..." said the larger man.

"Kenneth!" the girl spoke to me, at least I think it was to me. "... hear me?"

Her face looked familiar. Why did it look familiar? Did I know her?

"Eh..." I tried to speak, but my tongue felt heavy in my mouth "Emma?"

This seemed to upset the girl, as she looked to her large friend/father/whatever and said something, panic drawn across her features.

The man said something to her, and then I felt a firm smack across my face.

I stared hard at them, the man and the girl. Then their names came to me. Joel and Ellie! How could I forget?

"Guys?" I spoke

"Kenneth!" Ellie cried "Oh, thank God. We thought you were gone there"

"What happened?" I asked, grimacing as my chest hurt with every breath, and I was breathing hard. I was leaning against a fallen log. I tried to move, to make myself more comfortable, but I felt as weak as a kitten, and I hurt all over.

"We don't know" Ellie answered "You kinda just collapsed. Joel had to drag you out the water"

"Kid" Joel spoke to me, worry evident in his voice "How does your arm feel?"

"My..." I stopped speaking as I my lightheadedness came back "My arm? Feels... feels like nothing"

Joel shuffled over to my arm, taking the bandaging in his hands. There was a sound of crackling paper, and all of a sudden my arm didn't feel like nothing anymore. I bit my tongue before I could scream. The pain became unbearable as Joel painstakingly unwound my bandages. The smell had become ten times worse, if that were possible.

As Joel finished unwinding my arm, I heard him whisper "Christ". Ellie was less subtle. She went "Oh fuck" and turned away retching. If it were possible, I would've joined her. I wasn't too sure what an amputated stump was meant to look like, but it definitely wasn't meant to look like _that_. The skin was purple and brown, almost black in some places, and there was some kind of yellowed pus leaking from it. The stench was suffocating.

I tried to speak, but between the bile in my throat and the pain that wracked my body I could only hiss "The fuck?"

Ellie was back again, her face an unnatural pale shade. "What the hell is that?"

"That... is not good" Joel answered.

"No shit" I wheezed "How bad?"

Joel gritted his teeth before speaking "Well... your arm is pretty much dead. This black shit, I don't know how it all works, but I think that's like rot"

"But I'm not dead!" I cried, panic giving strength to my voice "I'm not dead"

"Your arm is" Joel stressed "All this rot has poisoned your blood, and it's going everywhere else"

"Is that why..." I paused as more chest-pains came "Why I'm hurting all over?"

Joel was quiet now "Yes"

"And my chest" I continued, the reality of the situation was making my eyes a little watery "That means it's got to my heart?"

"...Yes"

I was crying now. My chest hurt, my arm hurt, my head felt like a lead weight. I knew what was happening.

I was dying. I wasn't going to make it.

"How long do I have? Realistically?"

"I dunno, kid. Not long enough to get you to Tommy's"

"We have to try though, right?" Ellie looked at us, searching for the answers in our eyes

"He won't make it" Joel was blunt about it. I wasn't too sure if that made it better or not.

"We can get you medicine" Ellie assured, or herself. "Antibiotics or something"

"Ellie," Joel started "The closest source of supplies was the cabin we just left. There ain't no meds back there. And there's nothin' else for miles"

"I'm not losing anyone else Joel" Ellie argued "We need to do something"

"Hey" I spoke, my voice breathless "Don't count me out just yet"

They both turned to look at me. Their faces identical masks of sadness and pity. I hated that. Their pity. It seems irrational now but that just made my skin crawl.

"What are my options?" I asked Joel.

"Well... we can try and carry you to the road. We might find a car, might be able to get you to Tommy's in time. But you're a deadweight now, so it won't be easy. And it'll hurt you"

"I'll go into shock or something, won't I?"

"...You might"

I might. That was his answer?. I might just die? Is that really his fucking answer?

I took a deep breath to try and calm myself, only to wince as chest flared with pain.

"Option 2?"

"Option 2 is that we leave you here, and you die for sure" Joel answered

"That's not a fucking option guys!" Ellie snapped. She grabbed me by the shoulders, ignoring the face I probably made as my pained body suffered under her stressed grip "We're not leaving you. _I'm_ not leaving you"

Their were tears in her eyes. She was close enough I could see that. She was so afraid she would lose someone else. No, she knew I was a goner no matter what we would do, she just didn't want to admit it. It would be to painful. I knew what that felt like.

I gazed out over her shoulder. Beyond me lay the lake, its body clear and blue. The trees on the other side a beautiful spectrum of greens.

"It's a nice view" I sighed "I think... I think I'll stay here"

"No!" Ellie cried. "No"

I looked to Joel, wiping a sheen of sweat away from my forehead with a stiff hand. "You take care of her" I told him "No matter what happens. You hear me?"

Joel's face was sombre "Yeah kid, I hear you" I knew he would protect her anyway, but it helped to hear him say it. He started to speak again "Kid. Kenneth. I... I ain't gonna lie to you, this ain't a pretty way to go. The easiest way, the... the gentle way would be..."

I nodded, knowing what he meant "Boom"

Ellie started getting to her feet "I can't watch this"

"Wait" I spoke, reaching to grab her wrist. She stopped. I gently pulled her closer to me, close enough that she and I could knock our heads together if we so desired. "You... you keep living, okay? No matter what. No matter what happens you stay strong, you find something worth fighting for, something worth living for and you stay alive. Okay? Promise me, Ellie"

She was definitely crying now "I promise"

I pulled her closer, so I was whispering in her ear "I'm sorry I lied to you"

We seperated, her face a look of grief, but her eyes understanding. She knew what I meant.

"Now go over there" I flailed my arm away "I don't want you to see this"

Ellie walked away, silent tears streaming down her face. I looked to Joel, who was holding his gun.

"I'd rather not have your gun be the last thing I see"

Joel gave a grim nod, "Behind you then"

I stared out over the lake, to the small untamed world that lay before me. I sighed, my pain growing ever stronger. But strangely, I was at peace. Ellie would be safe with Joel, and they were going back to the safe haven of Jackson. I could suddenly see it. The pair of them living in the town.

Joel, old and grey, his face a warm smile as he played guitar on the porch of his house. I bet he had a nice smile.

Ellie, a young and beautiful woman. She'd be watching movies with the families, maybe Joel would be sitting next to her. Or maybe a friend, someone closer to her age. Maybe even a girlfriend.

"You ready?" Joel asked.

My thoughts made me smile. "Yeah"

I held onto those thoughts of Joel and Ellie. Those happy faces. Safe. That's what I had fought for.

BANG!

* * *

 **Author's Note**

When I started this story, I always knew how I was going to make it end. What I'm not sure about though, is whether or not the send-off was good enough. If you want to criticise or praise, leave reviews. I always welcome them.

Thank you to everyone who favorited and followed this story and a major thank you to everyone who read this story.

Please be sure to keep your eyes and ears open for anything else I write!


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